~ ICHIGO, ICHIE ~

2008-12-31T14:43:00.002+08:00

I forgot to close this blog.

Hereby I declare that I will not be updating this blog anymore tho I won't delete it. So stop asking me too. And those idiots who spam my tagboard can go to *tooot*.

My new (tho now not so new anymore) blog address is: http://my7kaleidoscopes.blogspot.com/

So, I'll see you there ya (:

Ja ne~

Coming Soon...

2008-04-01T13:44:00.002+08:00

I know I haven't posted anything for the longest time. School, work, social life yadda yadda have kept me busy. Very busy, really. I promise I'll come back after my exams are done, in like 3 week's time ya.

Btw I'm in the midst of creating a new blog(s?) with ehm... more intelligent sounding blog addie (altho i still find 7bohahaha a very cute and funny name. blame my addiction to Bleach heh...) and nicer stuff, i think. And maybe cuz I wanna change theme also lah.

Oh wellz, keep a look out for it.

In the meantime, I'll see u when I see u ;)

Ciao~

PS: Erns told me few days ago that he ended up on my quiet lil bloggie when he googled for Hana Kimi. hehe... Interesting.

All my bags are packed...

2007-12-10T23:03:00.000+08:00

But, I'm not exactly ready to go.

Somehow, I've been feeling uneasy. And 2 nights ago I could sleep cuz I kept having nightmares about the mission trip. Dunno why. Usually this kinda trip always get me really excited. Maybe Reuben's incident kinda have an impact, no matter how slight it was. Makes me kinda paranoid. And the bad weather just sorta worsen the mood.

But anyways, I'm sure God is watching especially since we're doing His work.

I really hope the weather is better there and it's not that cold. You know how much I HATE cold places. Maybe cuz i'm such a warm person, coldness and me aren't exactly best friend :P :P

But in any case, I've taken a nice long warm shower and scrub my entire body in case I decided not to shower there cuz it's too cold. But if u noe me, U'd noe that I can't go to bed w/o taking a shower first.

Heard it's about 5 centigrade there and we hafta take our baths in the river. Hahaha.... Hope my butt won't freeze.

I've so many food pictures to post but guess now no more time. My flight's at 630 AM! gosh!

Wellss, sayonara for now. Will be back on the 24th. On X'mas eve!! well afternoon actually :)

My B'day + X'mas Wishlist!

2007-12-07T17:29:00.000+08:00

Gosh I've been so busy that I forgot my bday is around the corner. I've never done this before (cuz quite paiseh, u noe) but since I haven't got any income for the whole term and my internship pay has been long depleted, I guess I shall be shameless and write a b'day wishlist. Oh and since it's near x'mas, the list can double up as x'mas list i guess. *hint hint*

They are in order of priority, meaning No. 1 is what I want the most. But then again... I want 'em all! haha.... even if i don't get all, hope I can get a part time job nxt year so I can buy them myself. Tee hee...

So here's my list:

Canon EOS 400D. Optional add-on: 50mm f1.8 lens (if u wanna give me f1.4 also can :P)
Springform pan. Brand doesn't matter as long as they are of good quality. I believe Kaiser is avail in S'pore.
KitchenAid stand mixers in Empire Red
Ramekins
More baking pans!! haha... I only have 7 and 8-inch sq pans and a too-big-a-size loaf pan (need a standard size one). Williams-Sonoma has the most extensive and unique range *twinkling eyes*
Rectangular ceramic baking dish
Cake decorating set
A meet up with Jamie Oliver
A trip to Japan,
Coupled with a meet up with Oguri Shun!

(ok the last three are quite far-fetched, but what the heck.. :P And if u make them come true, I'll LOVE u forever!)

Actually there are lots more but I shan't be greedy ;)

Oh btw, as much as I love reading cookbooks, I think I've enough already. And besides, I prefer getting my recipes online where they've been tried and tested :)

I'll be celebrating my bday in some ulu place, again. The coming one makes it 3 in a row ^^" Dunno if it's good or bad. haha... I do want a nice good quality choc cake for my bday instead of a "kampong" cake. LOL... (altho I really do appreciate them) Maybe I shall buy myself one when I come back :D

Eat, Drink and be Merry

2007-12-06T21:05:00.000+08:00

Sometimes i wonder why is it that even tho it's hols now, time still passes by so quickly. I hardly have time to do all things that I wanted to do. LOL but well, at least I'm doing things that i like. Managed to try 4 new recipes, finish all the postponed one piece and naruto shows, go out with friends for food and discovered new baking shops. Not to mention, Fenny and I are planning something exciting! But it's not concrete yet, so I shall keep it under wraps for the moment ;)

So, I've accumulated so many photos but no time to upload and talk about it >.<

Where should I start?

Oh, last Saturday we hang out at Oliv's place for some fun, joy, peace and laughter. At first I didn't really feel like going cuz first, they always started so late (earliest 9pm) and since I had to go home early, thot no point going there. Second, Vee and Ellen couldn't come. Third, they always play drinking game. You know I can't drink. Even if I can, I don't like the taste (unless it's Baileys, or they're used for cooking or baking). But in the end, I'm glad I went. We did have lotsa fun and laughter.

We started with a simple potluck dinner. Check out the proportion of food to drinks. haha... But hey, I didn't drink hor (ok maybe a sip). So don't go running to my dad and say that I've been a naughty girl. Cuz I haven't and I want my x'mas gift.

While everyone is still sober

Played drinking game, which was really fun. Seriously, it's true when ppl say, "People will think you're smarter than you really are if you keep your mouth shut".

This guy is a summa AND acct top student leh. BUT he was the one who kept losing. LOL... that shows gpa doesn't really show ur true intelligence :P

And then people start doing weird things:

Dan demo-ing ase reje dance??

Oliv kept saying 'chicken nene po' (no idea what that means), but Yola heard it as 'chicken lamb chop', and I heard it as 'chicken airport' which got Anz hysterical (mayb cuz he's high already). So mayb that hand movement is part of chicken dance ala Anz *shrugs*

And then there's the joke:
Q: Why did the chicken NOT cross the road?
A: Cuz it'd rather take airplane from the chicken airport.

U have to be there to understand the joke :P

KO-ed

Eat, drink and be merry :)

Phew

2007-11-30T10:46:00.000+08:00

Finally!! done with exams! *phew*

There are tonnes of new recipes to try out my hands are so itchy now. tee hee...

Oh and of course i feel bad i've neglected the straw hat crew and naruto & friends for so long :P

U noe, after exams sleep was the last thing on my mind even tho my eyes were asking for it >.<

Time to resume my life! haha....

2007-11-25T15:16:00.000+08:00

It's been awhile now and though it was short, it was nice knowing you. It was nice having prata with you, jane, and veron before morning assembly. It was nice hearing you play the piano during chapel time. You were a great senior and head prefect.

Rest in peace, Reuben....

Welcome to the Family, guys!

2007-10-27T21:37:00.000+08:00

.... and here's some cookies as ur welcome gift :):)

That was the first time ever since I came to Singapore that I've seen so many ppl getting baptised. 11 people! Majority are from earliteens. 2 from BRATz! Congrats to Denise and Teddy!

So happy especially for Teddy. He definitely has changed alot from the first time he joined BRATz. He was er.... rather chubby and bit wilful. Now he's much better. Trimmed down lots (but still considered as my 'babat' rival). And he's now even more diligent in reading his Bible than I am. Shame on me *shakes head*

Can't believe the BCD were baptised also o.O Those 3 mosquitoes.... A big headache in PF. So mischievous and can be super pesty. Hopefully they've really changed haha....Wait. Noe what? Bryan actually complimented my cookies *gasp* The most rascal one.... First time he said nice things to me! I was really happy. LOL... All the effort baking those cookies till 11+pm yesterday paid off ^.^

Seeing all of them getting baptised made me remember my own and how I've changed since. I must say not really for the better. But somehow now I kinda feel lyk I've gotta change my attitude. Be a good role model, sth like tt. Feel kinda bad when Dom actually read all those F words and told me it was vulgar and I ignored him. Haha... Sry Dom, was really upset tt day. But well, I'm the kind who need to let things out. I'll be really mad and upset for a while, but shortly after tt I'll be fine and be a good girl again :) So yea...

Mayb I shud say things using their positive synonyms even when I'm upset. Like my bro said. Instead of saying, "F***, he's such a flirt and so lazy". I shud say, "Goodness me, he's such a super sociable and laidback guy." haha

Well neways, again to Ralph, Denise, Dom, Clarence, Bryan, Tasha, Nic, Grace, and the 3 Filipinos (forgot their names :S), WELCOME!!

I shoud've made more cookies so the rest of the youths cud eat them too. But since it was a new recipe, I wasnt sure how it would turn out. So only made half batch. But it turned out great! the kind of cookies i like. Crisp on the edges and chewy on the inside. Like Subway cookies :)

I think i took out a little bit early so it wasn't tt crispy (I didnt mind tho). An extra minute or two wud make it perfecto. Finally I found the perfect (at least for now) choc chip cookies recipe!

Well, I won't be selfish and keep recipe for myself. Here's to all cookie monsters out there ;)

Addictive Chocolate Chip Cookies

(courtesy of 'bakingsheet')

2 cups ap flour

½ cup quick cooking oats

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup white sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and line a few baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Blend in vanilla extract and egg. Slowly add in the flour mixture until nearly combined.

Add in chocolate chips and stir until dough is uniform in color and chip distribution.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake at 350F for 11-13 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 40 cookies.

Note: I suggest reducing the sugar by 2 tbsp at least, unless u've a very sweet tooth.

Argh, I hate using camera phone but bro took my camera >.<

Chocolate Keeps Me Sane

2007-10-24T22:16:00.000+08:00

Okay, so I've been rather pissed, frustrated, and jaded these past few days. All triggered by that stupid MS midterm which i failed really badly. And i mean REEEEALLYY badly. So bad tt everytime i remember it, I felt like taking the paper out (which I've put right at the bottom of my papers pile) and tear it into tiny little pieces while screaming "Damn u, MS. DAMN U!"

Well, of course there are many other reasons that had sorta built up. But yea, that bloody MS - it's worth 30% and it's MS for heaven's sake. Not AFA.

And so to keep myself sane, I turned to whatelse but chocolate! I ate them, made them into brownies, truffles and muffins in the past 4 days. Chocolate therapy works wonders ^^

I've just realised that we have so much chocolate at home. Thanks to bro's friend who got us a big box of Ghirardelli assorted chocolate fr US. Then there's a container-ful of white and dark choc balls my sis bought couple of mths ago (still taste good), few bars of snickers from last cell group's retreat, couple bars of different milk choc i bought for my experiments (still can't find meltable white choc ): ) and a bar of baking choc :D

Seiously, whoever discovered chocolate should be given a Nobel prize. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, I'd say, "A piece of chocolate a day, keeps the psychiatrist away."

Mayb it's just me, but I don't even need exp choc to keep myself happy. I love kitkat, snickers, and even those cheapo choc gold coins.

The brownies were for Pris. The heart Yuppies spells "happy bday Pris". Took me quite sometime to stick the hundreds&thousands to the gummies. One of them got burned by the candles. Hee...Had wanted to make choc cupcake cuz i like frosting them but she likes brownies more. She's got expensive taste :P

Made these cuz still have the ingredients left from making the choc truffles bouquet for Kris and Yola. They're the not the normal choc truffles with ganache filling btw. They're Oreo truffles and Tim Tam truffles. But I think I won't be making them in a long long time. Too much hassle. And seriously, working with chocolate when u're living along the equator is a real challange, unless u don't mind blasting ur air-con while making it. But my kitchen doesn't have air-con :(

Those pics are taken in my room with the air-con on and even then the humidity made the chocolate 'sweat'. Sigh....But they still look better then the first ones I made. When I took the pics of the bouquet, they were already melting cuz the weather was warmer. Still contemplating if I shud post the pics cuz they don't look as pretty as I had intended :(

I love taking pics of chocs! They're so photogenic, don't u think? Don't think we have this brand in Singapore. Read about them in some American flog. Their choc is good! Had to eat all 4 squares cuz I've lyk touch them here n there while taking the pics. But not complaining :)

Used the dark choc one to coat the truffles. My fav is the raspberry one. The sourish raspberry filling compliment the dark choc real well. It's just slightly too sweet for my taste. Me not a big fan of mint choc, but I must say I really like their mint choc. After Eight is another good brand.

Will post the muffins pics later and listen to AMA prof now. Ah.... I love chocolate!

2007-10-19T12:37:00.000+08:00

Have u ever felt so useless? So fucking useless like u can't do anything right, like ur the dumbest person on earth, like everytime u go for classes it seems the profs are speaking in greek u don't fucking noe what's going on, like u screw up even the simplest task, like u're only interested in doing things tt other ppl consider stupid/useless/meaningless (read: things tt aren't sch-related)?

It doesn't help that all ur friends are so bloody intelligent and hardworking either. Don't get me wrong. I don't have anything against intelligent n harworking ppl. Good for them tt they're such smarties. Gah i so feel lyk bitching now. Class is boring. Fucking hate going to school. Seriously considering quitting school. But dad will disown me if i do that. Damn.

Fuck. I need chocolate. Lots of it. Should i just leave the class?

"I'd give up chocolate, but I'm no quitter"

2007-10-12T20:26:00.000+08:00

I had some stored in my mobile which I found while browsing through choc cookbook. The rest is courtesy of google. Enjoy :)

The darker, the better. -- Myself, Caressa

Nine out of ten people like chocolate. The tenth person always lies.--John Q. Tullius

Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done.-- Anon.

There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with CHOCOLATE.-- Linda Grayson

All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt! -- Lucy Van Pelt in Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz

There are four basic food groups, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles. -- Anonymous

Man cannot live by chocolate alone, but woman can. -- Anon.

When the going gets tough, the tough eats chocolate.-- Author Unknown

There’s more to life than chocolate, but not right now.-- Author Unknown

I'd give up chocolate, but I'm no quitter. -- Anon.

Awfully Chocolate, Awfully Good!!

2007-10-11T01:26:00.000+08:00

Okay, so I have like so many unposted pictures of stuff that I made that I dunno where to begin. In the end, I decided to blog about sth that I had today. Didn't make it but I totally totally love.

I'm sure u can guess what I'm gonna talk abt from the title. ha... It's none other than my fav food - C.H.O.C.O.L.A.T.E!!

Neways, we started by having dinner at Astons at opposite Katong Mall (119 East Coast Road). Theo's been mentioning that place several times cuz it's sposed to sell good and cheap steak. Never heard of that place before. But well, several people said it was good and really value-for-money and apparently it's quite a popular place. So I said, okay I'll go. There were sposed to be like 15 people, but in the end, the evilness of schoolwork+deadlines+balmy weather reduced the number to only 8.

The place has quite a nice ambience and there is a nice selection of food. And yes, they are relatively cheap. For chicken, there is chargill, black pepper, cripsy fried, hickory bbq, teriyaki, lemon lime, double up, chicken & sausage comb, mostly at $5.90 (incl GST). For fish, there are the normal fare, like fried fish, grilled fish etc mostly at $6.50. For steaks there are prime sirloin, black pepper steak, prime ribeye, prime tenderloin, and pork chops, ribs, lamp loin chops at $11-$15. Every main course comes with 2 side dishes like coleslaw, mashed potato, baked potato, onion rings, salad, etc. There is the 'celebrities beef' which was Wagyu. It was $38.90, I think. Cheap for wagyu, but definitely not in our tight student budget :P

Well, I'm not a big fan of steak and we seldom have beef at home (usually only in soups or stews) I prefer processed ones, like sausage, corned beef, burger, meatballs and the likes. So I went with Viny's suggestion which was the Chargrilled Chicken with mushroom sauce. The rest had steak (prime sirloin, ribeye, black pepper). Well they all said it was nice. Tried them but I couldn't really appreciate. I thought it was kinda dry and didn't have much flavor. I very much prefer my chicken. It was juicy and the sauce was nice. Not salty at all. The pasta salad was bad. It was too soft and sour.

Chargrilled chicken, pasta salad and baked potato

The 2 latecomers with prime ribeye and can't-remember-what-steak made Erlina and Cyn hungry again

For more info, click here (lazy to type cuz it's already 2.30am!)

After dinner, we crossed the road to Katong Mall for the awfully good dessert - Awfully Chocolate. Been wanting to try their stuff cuz been hearing ppl singing it praises. I so wanted to eat their famous chocolate cake, but the group isn't exactly chocolate lovers, except for Michelle. Since they don't sell in slices and the std cake is sold out, we were only left with the ice cream. We bought a pint plus 2 scoops for 7 of us. Mike didn't eat cuz he 'doesn't like choc'. When I heard that I was like 'Is it even possible for a person not to like choc??' *shakes head in disbelief*

Btw, Karen doesn't eat choc anywmore also. Okay, it's not that she doesn't like it, she just give it up due to some reasons. But for me, whatever reason ppl give me, I am never EVER gonna give up choc, even if they tell me that choc is highly unhealthy, life-threatening and can reduce ppl's lifespan by half. At least I die a happy girl :)

Bact to the topic, the ice cream was bloody good! Even non-sweet-tooth ppl like Theo and Fenny agreed that it was yummilicious. It was so velvety smooth, has intense choc taste and has the right amount of sweetness. It was like eating soft, cold, dark choc. Perfecto! I'd rather have that ice cream instead of the chicken for dinner. ^ ^

We love the awfully good choc ice cream!!

Dig in!

Dang, now I've a craving for its choc cake.

So ppl, hint hint....I wanna have that for my bday cake! (choc cakes from Bakerzin or Choc Factory are welcome too :P)

The aftermath. Wish I could lick the box :P

Abandoned puppies need a home :(

2007-10-10T23:26:00.000+08:00

FROM: jen.riding@singaporepoloclub.org

6 black lab (mix) puppies were rescued out of the middle of the road on Saturday. PLEASE help me find them homes - otherwise, it's Animal Control - which means they only have 5 days. We've bathed them, sprayed them for fleas and wormed them....but we can't keep them. They are currently in a kennel in my basement since I don't have a fence. I've lost count of the number of rescue groups that I've contacted, only to be turned down due to no room. Please check with every dog person you know to see if they need a puppy.

Aren't those puppies cute? It's always sad to hear that there are those horribly f***ed up irresponsible owners who abandoned their adorable innocent pets. Feel like punching them, don't you? If only I could keep those puppies, I most definitely would. Unfortch, I can't. So if you like dogs and would love to give them a home, please contact that email ASAP.

Gah! I seriously totally hate irresponsible pet owners! Hope they get their just dessert. Karma ppl, KARMA!!

Mommy, it's over :'(

2007-09-30T22:08:00.003+08:00

The Ikemen (sans Nakatsu)

Sigh... finally my favourite drama has ended. The last drama of my summer - Hanazakari no Kimitachi e.

While my peers are enjoying shows like prison break, ugly betty, boston legal, etc, I high-school j-doramas like Hana Kimi. So un-university student like, right? But who cares, I really enjoy every second of it. So sad it has to end :(:(

But really, if u guys haven't read my previous post about the show, go read it. Then go watch the show. The guys are insanely hilarious and silly (it doesn't hurt that they are cute too). But they are also very warm-hearted. I love simple stories of friendship like this. No need to to hold your breath thinking if some guy will get caught or bombard your mind with bitchyness or rake ur brain for some cheem (hokkien for profound) case. Doesn't mean I don't appreciate those shows (i love CSI), but mindless feel-good shows are nice to have once in a while ;)

I'm gonna miss the whole Ohsaka Gakuen boys. The brawny but no brain dorm 1 boys, the cute/hot-looking and fun-loving dorm 2 boys, and the weird and silly dorm 3 boys. No more Mr perfect Nanba-senpai, childish but faithful Tennouji-sama and crazy/always-possessed Oscar. But most importantly, I'm gonna miss the "hot-blooded soccer player, Nakatsu Shuichi". I've to admit he's the best actor in that show (sorry Oguri) and highly entertaining. Boo the stupid director, producer whoever it is that failed to bring the best out of Oguri. They totally supressed his role. He's supposed to be the more lovable character according to the manga. But well, as ppl have speculated, i think they wanna promote Ikuta Toma and the other boys. But he's still my fav actor atm.

Sano (Oguri Shun) and Nakatsu (Ikuta Toma)

I hate how they crammed everything into just 12 episodes. They should make another season. But I guess the final ep (a 2-hr special) kinda redeemed it a bit. The final ep was a roller-coaster of feelings, man. I was worried during the earlier part, then LOL, then worried again, then relieved, the laugh like crazy during the Ohsaka Gakuen festival then felt really sad (me who don't usu cry while watching dramas, actually tear abit), then felt warmness (talking abt feeling lah) and squealed and had a huge grin at the end.

Btw, there's speculation that they're gonna do a SPECIAL, cuz at the end..... ha nvm u guys watch urself. I really wish they do tho.

Neways, here's a video from ep 11, the cheerleading part. Man, they must be the hottest cheerleaders I've ever seen! I totally envy Maki. I used to hate Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend, but now it's stuck in my head *.*

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Will miss u all. BABY!!!

Where's my mooncake festival?

2007-09-25T21:26:00.000+08:00

This sucks. I can hear firecrackers swishing downstairs and kids laughing and chattering with glee downstairs. I can see them running ard with lanters. Or squating in groups trying to light up the little candles and make them into shapes like stars and all. I'm on 7th floor and I can even smell the firecrackers and burning candles. Sigh..... I wish i could join the fun.

But nooooo, I'm stuck here in my room, reading up stupid MS cuz i've no idea how to do the hw and fussing up abt my project and cca and my ever increasing readings all at the same time.

And what's more, I thought tho I can't go downstairs and enjoy the beautiful full moon, I could at least eat my mooncake while doing my work. But noooooo, I forgot that mom put it in the freezer and we don't have a friggin microwave cuz my parents think microwaves are baaaaadddd and so it takes some time for it to thaw. Gah! Crabby patty!

Mission Trip Here I Comeeeeeee!

2007-09-22T22:07:00.000+08:00

After praying hard every night, sometimes on bended knees, my dad finally let me go to mission trip instead of to his ulu (aka in the middle of nowhere) hometown, which I am very very glad to pass. YAY!! Don't get me wrong, I don't go to mission trip cuz i wanna escape from the other horrible trip, but cuz i DO miss going to mission trip and thus i really do wanna go.

Remember the first mission trip the BRATz had on Dec '05? Click here, if u missed reading abt it. U must scroll down a bit tho.

We totally had a blast! Tho we were stripped off of our usual privileges (computer, internet, bed, clean bathroom etc), we learned alot of things. I came back a different person. Lol, ok lah not so dramatic. But really, a part of me changed, for the better, of course. That is why, this year I wanna join the BRATz in our 2nd mission trip. Cuz i noe i'll be able to help the less privileged ppl, learn new things, meet new ppl yadda yadda, but most impt, witness to non-believers (just like our lesson this morning).

We had lyk 13 ppl fr the previous one, while for this one , we have 17 ppl confirmed going. Praise God! We even have an earliteen coming with us. Isn't it great? I'm really looking forward to this trip.

Btw, ehm.... we need funds obviously. We need at least $10,000. That's solely for the project. Personal expenses (air tix, accomod, etc) come fr our own pocket. So far we've managed to raise ard $5,000+ (a gazillion thx to those generous donors) fr our fundraising day and t-shirt selling. We're still selling t-shirt (details later). The designs are christian-themed and very2 nice. U can help us reach our target by buying the t-shirts or make donation.

So if u wanna help (bless ur heart if u do), don't hesitate to contact me! I'm sure God will bless u abundantly :):):)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So neways, here's the details of our mission trip:

Group of youth from the Balestier Seventh-day Adventist Church, will be embarking on Project Aurora in December 2007. We will be headed to Bee Yaw Ta village, a mountain-top village in Chiang Mai, Thailand (it's abt 8 hrs drive fr Chiang Mai, and we need to hike up a little to reach the place)

During this mission trip, we will be running programmes at the public school situated there. Our programmes include English Language lessons, Art & Craft lessons, Health Education, etc. Also, we would also be repairing two classrooms there which have been damaged by termites.

Late afternoons would be dedicated to Vacation Bible School for students of the school and children in the village. We will also be holding nightly evangelistic meetings for the villagers, preached by our own youth (I'll be preaching too (; )

We need funds for the construction materials (timber, nails, paint), the materials to run our programmes and vacation bible school and also for the villagers’ daily necessities. We hope to be able to purchase 100 thick blankets to bring over as it gets very cold in the winter season.

Your help will deeply felt by the people of Northern Thailand. Thank you.

For more details:
Do not hesitate to contact me for the Information Booklet (hard and soft copy available)

Or simply email us at projectpharos@gmail.com to request for it!

Cheques can be made payable to Balestier Road Seventh-day Adventist Church.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Even if u can't help us financially, ur prayers will be very much appreciated :)

Cheezey cakes

2007-09-16T21:49:00.000+08:00

Almost forgot I've these pics. All taken when I went out with my favourite gossiping-bitching-ranting about life, sch and the likes-mugging partner. Ok, I'm not sure about the mugging part. We did often stay back in lib to "mug", but usually we ended up doing the other 3 mentioned or some other random stuff.

So sad we don't have any common class this term. It's really fun (altho not exactly work-efficient) doing the same mod as her cuz we're so alike in many things and we're both such 'laggards' (if u don't noe the meaning of the word, google it or take TWC class :P). So it's nice to know u're not alone in a class full of those ~~competitive smart-asses~~ highly motivated people. Crap, we could have been in the same AMA class if not for that stoopid BOSS system.

Neways about the pics - both the tiramisu and cheesecake are from Bakerzin. I totally love Bakerzin, man, ever since my first trip there like er....5, 6 years ago. That time went with my churchmates cuz Gail was working there, so we got staff discount. I still remember how good the warm chocolate cake was. Expensive, but superb. We had other cakes also, which were good. But my fav till now is the molten choc cake.

The tiramisu and cheesecake were really good, as expected. Both were smooth and velvety. Cheesecake wasn't too sour, like some lousy ones, and the strawberry jelly on top balanced the taste well so that the u won't feel jelat (malay for feeling sick if eaten too much, i think) after only a few bite. Tiramisu had a nice amount of alcohol in it, altho a bit more wudn't hurt ;) and the coffee taste was just nice, not too overpowering.

But the nicest tiramisu I've tasted was the one i got during FT dining at NUS Guild house or sth (forgot the place's name) resto located above Carrefour, Suntec. It was damn good! Prof said they used half bottle of the alcohol for our batch. One bite and my throat felt warm already. Heard one girl from the previous class got a bit dizzy. haha...Don't get me wrong tho. I don't like to drink alcohol. I think all kinds of alcohol taste disgusting, even the sweetest and mildest wine. But I love to eat alcohol! In tiramisu, fish & chips, pasta, roasted fish/chicken/beef, ice cream, cakes, etc. And i like the smell also :P

The cake on the pic was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting from NYDC. I really like the chunky cake. U can really see the carrot bits and it got lots of walnut pieces. Nice... They put too much cream cheese tho. But u can always scrape it aside.

Btw it wasn't intentional but don't u think Dawn really looked like a rabbit eager to eat carrot? haha...

Oh n i just realised all 3 cakes have cheese cream on them. Goes to show I love cheeeeseeee :)

I made my own ice cream!

2007-09-12T00:10:00.000+08:00

Lolly pops are non-brainer. Lollies are just frozen lemonade, juice, or whatever liquid u freeze in the lollies mold. Simple but really great during summer. But during the summer hols, I felt like making a ice cream. A proper smooth creamy ice cream. And remember I got tonnes of Milo? So yea, I need to finish them up before they expire.

I remembered making my own ice cream with my neighbour when I was juz a tiny tyke. She was a couple of years older, but still we were only in primary sch, I was maybe only primary 2 or 3. I don't quite remember how we did it, but i do remember it being pretty easy. We didn't even get any help from the adult. But I don't really remember how it turned out tho. Haha... So maybe it turned out well, maybe it didn't. Still I don't think it's that hard to make ice cream that u even need ice cream makers, which cost few hundred bucks. I don't think it's worth it, unless u wanna have ur own ice cream parlour. I bet u can make good ice cream without spending much.

Googled how to make good ice cream without ice cream makers. Found some, erm... interesting methods. There's one using Ice Cream Ball. The ball's definitely cheaper than ice cream maker, but where wud i get it from? Never seen it before in Sg. Then there's the Tin Can Ice Cream. It uses similar concept to the ice cream ball, but instead it uses tin can, which are cheap and widely available. But it needs rock salt. Firstly, the salt wud be wasted afterwards, and second, what if the can broke and the salt gets into the ice cream? Yuck. And it's ma fan (troublesome) having to kick it around.

So lucky me, my latest favorite flog (that's short for 'food blog') by David L has a step-by-step guide to making ice cream w/o ice cream maker. yay! and it's got tonnes of ice cream recipe. double yay!!

So, after tweaking David's Malted Milk Ice Cream recipe from his book The Perfect Scoop, I came up with Chocolatey Milo Ice Cream :)

Chocolatey Milo Ice Cream

What's in it:
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
3 oz dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 cup milo powder
4 egg yolks
a pinch of salt
optional: dash of vodka/rum
optional: malted milk balls (such as Whoppers or Maltesers), roughly chopped

How to concoct it:
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the one cup heavy cream with the malted milk powder. Place a mesh strainer on top of the bowl and set aside.
2. In a sauce pan, whisk together the 2 cups milk with the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt until smooth. Whisk together the egg yolks in a small bowl. Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Drizzle a little bit of the milk mixture into the egg yolks, stirring to combine, then add the egg yolks in a slow stream back into the milk in the saucepan. Return the pan to the heat and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not let boil or it will curdle. Remove the mixture from the heat and immediately stir in the chopped chocolate, stirring until the chocolate is melted and combined.
3. Pour the chocolate mixture through the strainer into the malted milk mixture and stir to combine.

At this point, if u have the machine, then continue with the method. If not, go to Making Ice Cream Without A Machine for instructions.

Took forever to freeze...

Place the mixture in the refrigerator to chill thoroughly, at least 4 hours. Process the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Add the malted milk balls (if using), at the end of churning.

Note: I eliminated the cocoa powder and added more Milo powder cuz I still have so much :P
Btw, according to David, to make the ice cream softer, u need to add more alcohol. But I think I added too much. Erm... like 3 or 4 tbsp. And i think tt was why it took forever for the ice cream to freeze up, like 7 hrs to half freeze and another 5 hrs to really harden :P But the waiting was worth it. It was soooo gooooood.

Time...

2007-09-10T21:44:00.000+08:00

...seems to fly even faster this term.

It's suddenly week 4 already. I was lyk, "oh crap, week 4 already?!?" this morning.

Somehow, I still dun have the drive yet. I noe I told lyk every single soul I noe that I'm gonna be a good nerdy girl who wud study and study and study and get a GPA of 4.3 (what u laughing at, eh? I noe its ~~tough~~impossible, but I still hv the right to daydream okay!)

I seriously dunno where all my time go to. It's creepy, man. Ok, i did study a bit. Gonna study somemore. Oh and i resumed my gym session today! *yay!* First, cuz my energy level's really bad nowadays and cuz Andy kept askin if i've used the new shoes (which i got erm.... couple of wks ago :P) yet.

Oh and I still haven't upload the food pics I've been meaning to, cuz i was..... busy. yes busy....Okay i finally finished my j-drama (kurosagi and nobuta were great! and yamapi is sweeeeet. Damn Kit for 'intro-ing' him to me :P) and promised not to watch anymore till hols.

I shall upload some photos now ya, so I can delete them. They're seriously cloggin my disk space.

Here We Go Again.....

2007-08-20T23:32:00.000+08:00

School officially re-opened today. But lucky (or is it unlucky?) me has no school today. Dang, I still have 3 mods only! Oh plspplsplsplspls let me get my bids this time...

Alrite, gotta pack my bags. Now where the **** did I put my pencil case n stuff? :S

Gah! Where did my hols gone too? It ended too sooooooooooooooooooooon! :(

Hope can survive my tax planning (gasp!) tmr. G'nite world, goodbye dear holidays and welcome (not) school days....

My Dream Kitchen

2007-07-30T23:30:00.000+08:00

I want them all!!

Ooooooh! Look how gorgeous all those gadgets look!! KitchenAid do have the most brilliant stuff, don't u think? I wish I have lots of dosh to spare to buy those lovely but why-oh-why-so-expensive beauties. I can just imagine how cool my kitchen will look with them adorning it. Then everyone will call me the It Girl with Cool (with capital C) Kitchen. Haha...

The Red Beauty

I always dream of having the kitchen like Jamie's or Nigella's. I want like the one shown on Just Jamie (i think. Can't remember as he's got many shows). Anyways, it's one with stainless steel (or is it aluminium? I still can't really tell the diff between these 2 metals) counters, not the wooden one. Although wooden is supposedly better, but cleaning up and maintaining it would be a hassle, I suppose. Then I want it to be in white or off-white tone, REALLY spacious and has HUGE windows that allow lots of sunlight to come in, with lots of potted herb plants by the windows. And of course, complete with either KitchenAid and/or Cuisinart appliances and other cool kitchen accessories - WMF pots n pans, Le Creuset french oven.... u get the drift. You see, since my kitchen is white/off-white, the stuff in it must be colourful to make it look cheery =D

Oh, altho I dun really care about my pots and pans, I am quite particular about knives. Blunt knives really get on my nerves. So it'll be superb if I have a set of those Henckels (or any other good quality) knives. I would also love to equip it with a mean-looking high-quality stainless steel oven. Aah! I think if my dream comes true, I wouldn't mind sleeping in the kitchen. Tee hee....

Another room in the house that I'm quite particular about is the bathroom. I'm very very particular about it. Whenever I check in to a hotel (or any place), the bathroom will be the first one that I check out. You know, when you're doing your ehm....business, you'd want it to be done in a place right, cuz the transaction isn't always smooth-sailing.

I love watching MTV cribs and checking out those stars' bathrooms. Man, some of them even have like a plasma TV, no actually there were 2, one in front of the toilet and another beside the bathtub, a fireplace, a huge bathtub, a shower place that has water spray embedded all over the wall and many other stuff. The full-marbled bathroom was like 2 to 3 times the size of my bedroom. Hmm I wouldn't mind sleeping in there either :P

Hee... ok this post is soo random, but I do really really want those fab KitchenAid (or Cuisinart) gadgets. You know, my b'day is in 4 and a half months. So ....*coughhintcough*.... you know what to do ;);)

Btw, ONE MORE DAY TO END OF INTERNSHIP!!!! hurryhurryhurryhurry!!!

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e [花ざかりの君たちへ]

2007-07-25T19:50:00.000+08:00

As I've mentioned I'm just so addicted to J-drama that I've turned into.......Doramon! haha.... not doraemon mind u, its d.o.r.a.m.o.n - Dorama monster. I'm just devouring any J-drama that comes my way.

Okay okay, not that bad yet, but i can't stop. If only I don't need sleep, I think i can just keep watching. Hmmm maybe I should write reviews of those I've watched. But that will take waaay too much time cuz I've wathced too many and so far, the recent one that I've watched is Hana Yori Dango 2. The rest are quite old. Think the oldest is GTO. But that's classic man. GREAT TEACHER ONIZUKA! Who can forget him?

Neways, I've gotta write review on this one that I'm currently watching (I may review HYD later). It's called Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (Lit. "For You in Full Blossom") with the tagline "Ikemen Paradise" (Hotties Paradise). Also known as Hana Kimi.

It's based on a popular manga of the same name by Nakajo Hisaya, which has already been dramatized in Taiwan (titled Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nu) with Wu Zun and Ella as the main characters. While for the Japan ver, it's Oguri Shun and Horikita Maki. I haven't watched the Taiwan version but heard the Japan version is waaay better. I don't have to watch to agree. I mean Wu Zun compared to Oguri Shun?! Do i hear a resounding "Duuuuhhh!"? And tho I'm no fan of Horikita, she's fits the image better than Ella. Ella looks too much like a boy. haha...

It's the most highly anticipated drama of the year with the first episode achieving a rating of 15.9% viewership and second ep 16.8%. And that's only in Japan. It started airing on July 3 and there will be 12 eps.

Anyways, the story goes like this:
Horikita plays the protagonist Ashiya Mizuki (Horikita), a Japanese girl in the U.S. who one day sees the young athlete Sano Izumi (Oguri) compete in the high jump on television. She begins to idolize him, and decides to move to Japan to attend the same school as him. However, Izumi goes to an all-boys school, so Mizuki disguises herself as a boy to achieve her dream of being with her idol.

Ashiya Mizuki, Sano Izumi (Don't lyk his hairstyle here :S)

He looks much better here (and in Hana Yori Dango)

The school, Ohsaka Gakuen, is a school where they accept students based on their looks instead of grades. Thus, the tagline "Ikemen Paradise". It really fits, I must say. From the first ep, there's an overload of the hot, the cool and the cute. There are even the weirdos, but still hot/cute.

The Ikemen Paradise!

The plot is usually filled with humor and situations that put all characters involved into uncomfortable places. Additional characters include Nakatsu Shuichi (Ikuta Toma), Sano's good friend and a soccer player,who is confused over his attraction to Mizuki. His confusion makes a hilarious character. The gender-bending nature of this series gives for many amusing hi-jinx and a lot of laughter.

To be honest, the initial reason for watching this show is cuz Oguri is in it. First saw him in Gokusen. Didn't think much of him. But then I started watching his dramas, and boy i must say he's a real talented n versatile actor. From a weak, bully-target middle schooler in GTO, to a half-deaf, thus speech-impaired boy in Summer Snow, to a desperate virgin in Stand Up!! and a rebellious high-schooler in Gokusen and many many other characters in other shows, he's definitely my current fav actor.

(Warning: May have a bit of spoiler from here onwards)

But.... I love love love Hana Kimi cuz its definitely not ur ordinary drama. Love the manga-styled framing, the exaggerated characters and the ever-brightly colored scenes. Okay, mayb the first ep wasn't that nice yet, and they shud've focused a bit on the main characters instead of juz throwing at us all the ikemen (me no complaints tho'). But with each episode, they let us on more on each character.

Of all the ikemen,I totally fall in love with Nakatsu (sorry Oguri). Ikuta plays him really well. The show becomes more.... alive whenever he comes into the scene. He's soo funny. I re-play the scene when he said "ore wa homo ja nai" (I'm not a homo) and others for lyk a gazillion times.

Then, there's the super hot, playboy dorm head Nanba Minami and his ever-so faithful fan (aka gayboy) Senri Nakao. Nakao is so cute, esp whenever he tries to attract Nanba's attention. He initially hates Mizuki for being 'cuter' than him. There's also the adorable weirdo (aka ghostboy) Kayashima Taiki. He totally surprised me in ep 5 with his ..... erm, just watch it. Then of course, I A.D.O.R.E Yuujiroh, the golden retriever.

Nanba-senpai and gayboy

Kawaii ghostboy :)

Even the OST of this show are soo addictive. Opening is by one of my fav Orange Range, and ending is by Otsuka Ai. Wasn't my usual cup of tea, but the more i listen the more i love them. Went straight to my repeat playlist.

I wanna say more, but erm dun wanna be a spoiler lah. Just watch it. I dun recommend this show just cuz its filled with the ikemen but cuz its really entertaining. If ur looking for a funny, happy, exaggerated (tho a bit brainless) show, ur in for a smashin' good time. I re-play each ep for at least twice, up to 5 times. haha.... And it gets better with each ep. I can't wait for ep 6!!

2007-07-25T19:27:00.000+08:00

More pics!!

HAPPY B'DAY, MASHIMARO!!

2007-07-24T23:15:00.000+08:00

It's not really her bday yet, but since we already celebrated it yesterday, i should juz post it up. and it's not really mashimaro, as u might've guessed. It's the pet name for our darling statz farm family member, Viny!

She's gonna be 20 this coming July 29. sigh... so young. haha... Neways, she treated us to New York New York at Citylink mall yesterday. Heard the resto got some bad critics - the food not nice, overpriced, slow service blah blah blah... but of course, I didn't tell her that. She's so nice to treat us already.

Actually i really like the open concept theme and the brightly colored place. Moreover we got to sit on the 'cave', which is like a tiny room but no door. It was comfortable yet hip. A great place to hang out. The menu, though, is just like any other western resto, like Cafe Cartel or Billy Bombers.

So we ordered 4 main courses and an appetizer for the 5 of us cuz the we saw that the serving is quite big. We could always order more if not enough. We were toying with the idea of ordering the 8-inch burger, which supposedly could order 4 people. But i think it's a good thing we didn't cuz we saw someone else's and it was huge, but looked 'dry' and the bread looked thick. Atkins dieter could die of carb overload. haha...

Erm i forgot to take note of the names and the prices, but if I remember correctly they are as stated.

Juicy Beef Burger - $??

BBQ Ribs - $14.90

Bratwurst wrapped in Bacon and Cheese - $10.90

Pasta in Carbonara Sauce with Half Spring Chicken -$??

Fiery Cheese Balls - $5.90

Despite the initial skepticism, overall the food and service was good. Food bit slow to come, but guess cuz the place was packed. So sad I couldn't eat the BBQ ribs. I was about to dig in when they told me it was pork :( It sure looked appetising. Btw, it kinda look like a thick ba kwa (bbqed minced pork), doesn't it? They told me it tasted really good. The meat was tender and it wasn't too sweet. I had to really summon my power of determination to resist to sweet temptation (pun intended). The burger was quite nice. I liked the beef patty which was thick, juicy and tender. The bratwurst was alright. The bacon and chesse looked real good and crispy, but too bad I couldn't eat them either. They all came with either potato wedges and chips. Both were hot and crispy, but the chips were too salty.

The pasta on the other hand was really delish. I dig the sauce carbonara sauce. The chicken wasn't too sweet and was really good. Siska, despite telling us repeatedly that she was sick of pasta in cream sauce when we were ordering, enjoyed it as much as the rest of us did. The cheese balls was quite a disappointment. They were too oily and didn't have much flavor except for the slight spicyness. I couldn't even taste the cheese. So even though i'm a cheese and potato lover, they still didn't go down smoothly.

Tee hee...

Bday girl with Niu Niu

We were tellin her that the teddy should be named. We were just jokin when we said since we just ate at NYNY we should name it nyny, but in the end our newest family member is really called Niu Niu ('niu' means cow in mandarin :P)

Our happy Statz Farm Family

The cake was actually brownies, topped with chocolate frosting and decorated with white choc chips. I was askin the bday girl if she liked cupcakes or brownies better. Of course she answered brownies. I thought of doing cupcakes cuz there would be more room for pretty decorations. But so glad she really liked the brownies =D

And trust Theo to come up with the "FREN101" Course Outline for the bday girl. He really has the most 'jayuz' (indo slang for lame) idea.

Told ya choc is such a great happy-mood maker. See how euphoric they are? Who needs alcohol?

Playing scrabble with the brownie pieces. LOL..

It was a fab night with good food and great company. Thanks for the treat, mashimaro. And Happy B'day! *chuuuuu*

Gasp! 1.30 am alr?? I got work tmr. dang! Guess i'll upload the rest of the pics tmr...

Yong Tau Foo

2007-07-17T23:10:00.000+08:00

Had a really nice lunch today... Went with Viny, Val and other PWC interns to eat at this yong tau foo shop. It's one of the shophouses located at the small street opposite the PWC building. I think it's Amoy St. I forgot to look at the shop name but shouldn't have a problem finding it cuz it's got big banner saying, "Yong Tau Foo with Special Sauce".

It's real nice cuz it's different from the normal kind which u can get from any food court. The yong tau foo here are all fried and then drenched with brown sauce. The noodle is the thick white rice noodle (usu for Laksa) and also drenched in the same brown sauce (i think). The sauce is really tasty. Also, considering I don't like oily food, even though all are fried, I don't find it very oily.

U get 6 items + noodles for $4 or 8 items for $5. Although it's slightly more expensive than normal, the pieces are quite big I was really stuffed. I couldn't even finish the noodle.

Val said she knows lots of good eating places. And she said she's going to bring us to this nice japanese resto. Can't wait :)

Edit: I found a place nearer to my office that sells similar thing. It's at the basement of the Chevron House at Raffles Place. It's a mini foodcourt called Select. Lots ppl go there to eat the yong tau foo. It's nice too, but I prefer the one at Amoy St.

Bloomin' Brilliant Brownies

2007-07-04T14:31:00.000+08:00

After experimenting with quite a number of brownie recipes, I still couldn't find one that would give me the kind of brownies that I have in mind (sth like the Secret Recipe one, or made by Aunt Civera). I like it kinda fudgy but not too fudgy that it become too chewy.

I don't quite like the one from Edmund's (located at SMU Kopitiam). That's what I mean by too chewy. The one from the cake shop Royals is too dry and cakey, it doesn't deserve to be called brownies. The one from Brownies Factory at Taka (I've only tried the normal one tho) is too sweet. But according to Cheryl, the Double Fudge Brownie (or sth lyk tt) is really nice. I should try that some time.

Anyways, I wasn't planning to give up. So I google for more brownie recipes and I stumbled upon Jamie Oliver's website. Dang, why didn't I think of his website. So stoops of me. I've visited Nigella and Martha's webbies for recipes before but didn't think of Jamie's. My idol Jamie. How could I forget him? *shakes head*

But better late than never. Actually, I was a bit apprehensive when trying out this recipe, firstly cuz the amount of choc that goes into it is like really A LOT and requires more ingredients than usual (as in the qty). So if I failed, it'll be quite a waste. And, the amount of flour is like really little, I couldn't help but wonder if there was a typo. However, in the end I brazed myself to try it out.

First glitch, I forgot to use double boil when melting the butter and choc and it got a bit burned. Second glitch, I forgot to whisk the egg beforehand and I've already mixed all the other ingredients. I don't know what happend but after returning from whisking the egg, the batter became super sticky I had to use alot of effort to mix the egg in. At that point, I thought, "That's it. Another failure."

But well, since I've started might as well finish it. And am I glad I didn't throw the batter away. It turned out PERFECTO! Well maybe not totally perfect perfect, but it was really brilliant! It was fudgy and super chocolatey. My sis who until now refuses to take more than 2 bites of what I've baked (she's real picky) totally fell in love with this brunette beauty. She even told me that I shouldn't share it with my friends so she could eat all. My bro who doesn't really have a sweet tooth also said it was really nice and asked for seconds and brought it to his office to share. I was sooo happy! =D

So yea, here's the recipe.

Bloomin' Brilliant Brownies

from Jamie Oliver's webbie

What's in it:
250g unsalted butter

200g dark Fairtrade chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up

optional: 75g dried sour cherries

optional: 50g chopped nuts

80g cocoa powder, sifted

65g plain flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

360g caster sugar

4 large free-range or organic eggs

optional: zest of 1 orange

optional: 250ml crème fraîche

How to concoct it:
Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line a 25cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper. In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth. Add the cherries and nuts, if you’re using them, and stir together. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate, cherry and nut mixture. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency.

Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, and place in the oven for around 25 minutes. You don’t want to overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don’t want a skewer to come out all clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle. Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares. These make a fantastic dessert served with a dollop of crème fraîche mixed with some orange zest.

With chopped Brazil nuts

Since the pans that I have are smaller than the required one, i split them up to 2 pans. But I still I think u shud get a bigger one that the one mentioned. Cuz after splitting the batter (it's not exactly halved) I found the thickeness is just nice. Unless u like ur brownies to be real thick.

Pure and simple :)

Oh almost forgot, I found that my brownies always got a 'cave'! It's always lhappen (this time the other pan was alright tho). Any idea why?

Cereal with Chocolate?!

2007-07-01T17:13:00.000+08:00

All those baking are really making me fat cuz I ended up devouring most of the stuff. Having a 8.30 to 6 job is not helping either. Such sedentary jobs are really not good for a girl's tummy. Sigh... So i decided to lessen my carb intake and really work out after my internship. Seriously. But, this afternoon while accompanying my parents shopping at Marks & Spencer, I saw these 2 on sale...

Oat crunch, I really like and they're quite common. But with chocolate clusters? Now that I've never seen, or tried. And it has milk, white and dark chocolate altogether. Oh yumm! I think that will make a fab breakfast. Moreover, chocolates are endorphine-enducing and endorphines are feel-good hormones. So theoretically, you'll start the day in a good mood. How great is that?

But but but... I'm sposed to be on a low-carb diet. So should it be the healthier Strawberry & Almond Crunch, or the no-so-healthy but happy-mood-making Triple Chocolate Crunch?

Well, I guess my choice was pretty obvious. Who cares if ur healthy but ur miserable, right? And besides, dark choc are good for health too. And I decided to buy just 1 box, so it wasn't that bad. And.... whatever, I like choc, diet can wait. HAHA!

Guess what, I totally didn't regret my decision. They sure aren't stingy with the choc. And it's good quality choc, I can tell. 3 cheers for a happy breakfast!!

Some fruits to lessen the guilt

milo, milo, MILO!

2007-06-24T15:59:00.000+08:00

"Who loves MILO?"
"Caressa does."
"Is that true?"
"Uh-huh. I do, I do, I do-ooh"

Man, I haven't watch Kel and er.....some1 for a very very long time (I even forgot the show's name).Well, the famous line is, "who loves orange soda?". "Kel does.".... It's a kid show I used to watch on Nickelodeon.

Neways, i haven't met any normal person who hates Milo. Milo's great. So is Ovaltine. Some people might like one better than the other tho Milo's more popular here in Singapore (there are even various drinks concoctions using Milo. Milo dinosaur anyone?) But I think Milo and Ovaltine taste almost the same. I bet other kids, like me, grew up on Milo or Ovaltine. I still remember back in Primary school how we used to get real excited when the Milo van came to our school to promote the product. We then would sit nicely and wait eagerly for our cup of ice cold Milo.

I used to prefer eating Milo powder, tho. I think it tastes yummier than when mixed with water. But my maid would get really annoyed cuz then there would be Milo powder all over the living room.

I don't love Milo juz becoz of its delicious chocolatey flavor (I love anything chocolate!) but I do think that Milo is a great energy drink. I remembered once a few of us were out raising funds by selling jumble sale tickets. We had to go to those industrial sites/workshops and sell it door-to-door. It was really exhausting. But after drinking a tall glass of ice Milo, I felt I could do ticket-selling the whole day. No kidding. And it can easily be everyone's fav comfort drink.

Yesterday I noticed there's a box with the Milo logo. I peered inside and saw that there are 6 cans of Milo. The 1.5kg ones. So I asked mom whose are those. And she told me that some1 gave it to her. I was like. WOW! That's 9kg of Milo! My eyes turned chocolate... We still have like a half-ful can of Milo. So, as much as my sis and I love our Milo, how the *....* are we gonna finish all those Milo. I'm gonna get seriously obese if I were to drink all those Milo. So mom gave 1 can to my cousing, 1 to church for potluck and 1 or 2 reserved for our mission trip fundraising day [Do watch out for more info on this ;)]

That left me with 2 more cans. Mom decided to make Milo pudding and I, Milo Dinosaur!! Perfect for a warm Sunday afternoon. But there are still a lot more left. So I googled for recipes. I've got quite a few. But decided on this one recipe for now since I've got all the ingredients on hand.

Milo Muffins

What's in it:
3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Cup Milo
3 Tspn Baking Powder
1 Tspn Baking Soda
½ Tspn Salt
4 Eggs1 Cup Caster Sugar
½ Cup Dark Brown Packed Sugar
250g Butter
1 Cup Milk
2 Cups White Chocolate Chips & Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

'mm-mmm...

How to concoct it:
1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 200C.
2. Stir together flour, milo, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
3. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add in eggs and milk until combined well.
4. Fold in flour mixture until combined, finally fold in chocolate chips.
5. Divide batter among muffin cups (⅓ - ½ full) , bake for 20 minutes until deep golden brown, rotate tray after 10 minutes so muffins brown evenly.Place on a wire rack to cool completely.

I put extra Milo to the recipe, added some chopped almonds and omitted the white choc (cuz I didn't have it).

Oh boy, I totally dig the sweet aroma of this muffin. And I like texture also. Really soft. I didn't even wait for it to cool completely before I pop one into my mouth. Yumm!! =D

Double Chocolate Brownies

2007-06-20T13:34:00.000+08:00

After failing the last two (it wasn't that bad really. Still edible, but a bit dry and hard), I went to find some more brownies recipe, even borrowed this brownies recipebook from the library (man, am I glad they finally build a library in Bishan). There are quite a lot of brownies recipe in that book, but somehow i prefer getting my recipe online from foodblogs, cuz I thot those recipe must be more do-able, and it seems easier when people have actually tried out those recipe.

But I still visit the library for recipe books. I still believe in Jamie and Nigella, and occasionally Martha and I need to satisfy my fettish for drool-inducing, yummy pictures on recipe books. That's why I really can't figure out why people would publish recipe books without pictures. I mean it's so silly. People need to sort of have an idea how the end product should look like, especially noobs like me, right?

I forgot the name of the book, but the chocolate frosting recipe was great! Neways, I found this brownie recipe online and tried it out during the weekend.

Double Chocolate Brownie
adapted from Martha Stewart's Double Chocolate Brownie recipe

What's in it:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
200 grams good-quality semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed firm)
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

How to concoct it:
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degree celcius. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and line with parchment paper.
2. Put butter, chocolate, and cocoa powder in a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until completely melted. Let cool slightly.
3. Mix your flour, baking powder, and salt well and aside.
4. Using an electric mixer (or a handwhisk if you prefer), mix sugar, egg, and vanilla well until pale, about 4 minutes. Add chocolate mixture; mix until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until well combined.
5. Pour brownie batter into prepared pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer, when inserted in the brownie, comes out clean.
6. Let cool in pan for about 15 minutes then lift out to cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares.

It turned out pretty good. See... (I took more pics actually, but my ever-so-smart sis deleted them *grrr*)

I sprinkled some chopped Brazil nuts on top. Aunt Soh gave us a big container full of nuts (brazil nuts, pecans, macadamia nuts etc). I've never tried Brazil nuts before and never came across a recipe that uses it. It tasted quite bland when eaten on its own. But it went really well with the brownies. It tastes kinda like walnut but with a tinge of coconut taste. The texture is also more dense than walnut, kinda like almond.

Oh btw, I know the recipe asks for pure vanilla extract. But I've read in several recipe books that imitation one is good enough and they are really close to the real thing. Unless you're a real pro, you won't be able to taste/smell the difference. But if u are a purist and/or have lots of dosh to spare, by all means, get the real thing.

Neways, although the the brownies was not bad at all, I wasn't really satisfied. The brownies was a bit too cakey I think. I prefer it to be more fudgy. But well, Ralph said it was good. I guess different folks different strokes.

I really like the brownies from the Secret Recipe. It's just nice for me. Top it off with vanilla ice cream to make it even more 'mmm :):) I shall look for more recipes that'll give me that kind of brownies. Yup!

For the love of food...

2007-06-11T13:02:00.000+08:00

I've been wanting to post all the baked goodies that I've made during the hols but somehow I've been really busy that I've no time! What with internship, getting sponsorship for PPIS, planning for mission trip, reading new books yadda yadda yadda.... See I'm so busy right?

Oh okay, I've been addicted to J-dorama lately also. Ever since end of exams last April, when I watched Taiyo no uta. It's funny how i'm really into dramas now. i was never really a drama person but I guess it's how one show leads to another. Let's just say I've watched lyk 7 or 8 j-dramas and 2 j-movies (goin to watch another 1 tonite :P) in the past 2 months and those are outside my usual anime fix. haha.... I should stop and do sth more constructive. Like more baking! and posting them up ;)

I've actually started like a wk into my hols but haven't got round to write about it.

Just a fifth of what I've borrowed from library. Not to mention the hundreds of recipe I've found online :P

I was thinking of setting up a foodblog, but figured once school starts I won't have much time to bake cuz i'll be super duper busy (for real. not cuz of j-doramas), that I won't be updating much. So neways, it'll be food pics galore from now on till er.... I'm too lazy to blog again. haha....

PS: Do remember as u are reading my posts that I'm very much a noob at baking AND photography. So pardon the bad pics that make my babies look oogly. But seriously, apart from some minor glitches, they're all edible (and most taste real good too! Really!). So far, I haven't got any lawsuit pertaining to food-poisoning.

PSS: I wanna thank those who were willing to be my guinea pigs. But I think they should thank me instead for feeding them good food :P

"I'm a First Aider. I can help!"

2007-05-06T21:44:00.000+08:00

Wait a minute... me? a first-aider???

That's right! You read right. I am now a CERTIFIED first aider. I kid you not. I've passed my first aid course. With flying colors, mind you. Tee hee... it's not often I pass an exam with flying colors :)

Finally, after sacrificing 3 whole Sundays on that course, it's finally over. Was quite worried I wouldn't pass the exams cuz I only started studying this morning. I mean, seriously... I'd feel real stupid if I can even fail a first aid course. After all, I kinda joined my school's youth red cross when I was in sec 1. Besides, this course ain't cheap yea. Cost me $90 + 3 Sundays! Bleah.... Cud've spent it on some nice tops or shoes or spent the time baking or hanging out.

But thank God, I passed. Anyways, the course was quite enjoyable, surprisingly. Thot it'll be boring. But the instructor was really funny with lotsa stories. And the people from Eduro PF are really funny. Always making jokes. So overall, it was quite fun.

So guys, "If anything happens, just scream" (like what ST said). And Caressa, the first aider will come and help ya. Complete with the cheesy line, "I'm a first aider. I can help!" ;)

PS: Disclaimer: If anything goes wrong, I shall not be liable. But rest assured, I'll do my best. Haha.... :P

I want more hols! >.<

2007-05-05T21:46:00.000+08:00

I must be the laziest blogger. Summer's been on for 3 weeks already and i haven't posted a single entry since end of exams. It's weird. Seem like during hols that i'm more busy, esp in some days. But it's fun busy, not annoyingly exhausting busy, kinda days. Remember last dec hols? I was hardly home for 3/4 of my hols. But it was fun!

But dang, my hols ended too friggin' soon and now i'm already starting my audit internship. Yep, today's my 3rd day already. One word: SIAN!

One thing for sure, my internship isn't slack at all. My mentor already asked me to look at financial statements and do audit right from the very first day. Granted, the company is like a dormant company and the financial statement looked simple enough (for eg, there's only 1 item for income in the P&L) But still, I was like, "Wth?!? I haven't even taken my audit mod. Let alone do audit."

He was like, "Never mind. Audit very easy. Just follow how they do it last year. Dun understand anything, can ask me."

Right. I don't even know what to ask. Hell, I don't even know where to start. Totally lost. Even if I wanna follow last year's, some of the figures are totally different. Gah.... whatever.

But now it's slightly, only slightly, better. I kinda understand the company a bit and I'm actually doing most of the things myself, like vouching and even preparing the audit report. haha.... I just hope I've done them correctly cuz seriously, half the time I'm just sort of following last year's audit work.

Anyways, 3 days is enough to convince me that I don't want to be an auditor. Who says accounting is interesting? Who says accounting is 'more than just number crunching'?
Rubbish, I tell ya. Accounting's super boring. And it's nothing but looking at numbers, numbers and more numbers. Yucks. Zettai yadda!

Oh ya, have I told you that accounting and I are just not meant to be? I believe I'm jinxed when it comes to accounting. Seriously. I'm 100% sure. I can prove it. Let's see.... So far ALL my acctg mod projects are totally screwed up. As in it's either the final work is screwed or even if the end-product is good but the process of doing could just kill me. Then ALL my acctg modules grades are erm.... let's just say even Owen was totally shocked and kept saying," OMG, OMG, OMG!" when I told him my grades. Yep they are that bad. All of them. And there are more accounting horror stories. But I shall not bore you.

Sigh.... I've no freakin' clue why I'm still doing my acctg degree. Not like I've a choice though. Sigh.... Back to internship, at least my mentor isn't bad at all. In fact, I feel bad for him to have me as his intern. I must be the most clueless intern. I even forgot whether an increase in income is a debit or credit :P Well, I just hope my internship ends soon. Hee....

Friendship

2007-03-26T18:22:00.000+08:00

It started with just the 2 of them, who were always there for each other; sharing happy and sad moments, laughter and tears.

More came along the way, to share jokes, rantings and bitchings, panda biscuits, ricola and milo.

They are there to keep an eye on one another's back and keep one another strong.

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity" - Proverbs 17:17

It's week 13 now and things are getting crazy. Really glad I have friends who keep me sane amidst all the madness, who make me laugh till my face hurts despite the anxieties, who listen to my complaints and rantings despite having having problems of their own and who patienly explain stuff to me altho I have a Windows 98 for a brain. So very thankful that God sent them to be my friends :):)

PS: This is so random, but as I was browsing my photo album (i was feeling emo cuz i freakin failed my tax test. again. tax...urgh!) I found these pics, which were randomly taken by Alds during youth camp, and thought these pics make a very sweet story :)

HAPPY B'DAY TO U ALL!!

2007-03-18T14:59:00.000+08:00

Phew, soooo many march babies I can hardly keep up. One b'day party after another and more to come. And it's a freakin wk 11/12 of sch. shucks... busy busy busy haha... Well i've said the happy bday's but again to all u march babies....

happy b'day cynthia
happy b'day erlina
happy b'day daniel O.
happy b'day olivia
happy b'day daniel A.
happy b'day my annoying lil' sis, clarissa. miss bickering with u :)
happy b'day erwin
happy b'day fiona
happy b'day clara
happy b'day xue wei

and to cynthia, erlina, clara n xue wei - welcome to Club 21! hee hee....

Okie, i need to get ready for fiona's b'day now. Sod the stupid fiim, twc and tax report i'm sposed to do. lalalalala.....

So U Think U Can Dance

2007-03-15T13:45:00.000+08:00

Er.. no i dun think i can dance. I suck. Totally. That's why i didn't feel lyk going for yesterday's class. Besides I've AIS quiz on friday, and i've read only 30 pages out of 200 pages.

BUT, i'm glad i went. u noe why?

Cuz Ashle Dawson and Ashlee Nino was the instructor-of-the-day! In case u have been living in Mars, they are the winners of So U Think U Can Dance, season 1 & 2, respectively. I kinda knew they were coming, but thot that was juz publicity.

They are shorter than I thought. But they are sooo nice, esp Dawson. But maybe that's cuz she taught most of the time. But neways, she was really really sweet, funny, encouraging and fun fun fun! Even if you dunno how to dance, she juz makes u wanna move ur body. And even if you make mistakes, you won't go, "Oh shit, I'm so dumb." Instead, you'd go, "Oh, who cares." So basically she just wanted us to have fun. For the first time, I was thoroughly enjoying the dance class :) :)

So yep, despite the fact that the class was pretty tough and tiring, I had fun. Argh, wish i dun haf AIS quiz tmr. 170 more pages to go. It's soooo super duper boring. WTH am i doing here?!

Kamen Rider

2007-03-13T15:50:00.000+08:00

Forgot to include these kewl pics we took on Fenny's bday. Viny was wearing so-she-called-it 'kamen rider' shades, so each of us took a turn to wear it :P

And the most kewl ones:

2007-03-12T22:30:00.000+08:00

How do u peeps like my revamped blog? Hee... think i got tired of the old, dark and gloomy template and decided to use this white clean-cut template. Was thinking of adding some fancy stuff but now no time.

Argh! 3 reports, 1 quiz, 1 test, plus assignments. Argh!!! this wk's a killer. the nxt one, too. and the next and the next.... >.<

My first cake!

2007-03-12T09:15:00.000+08:00

Ok this entry is lyk 3 wks late. But like they say - better late than never.

Neways, 26th of Feb was Fenny's 21st bday and I wanted to do 'sth special'. Was thinking of doing some craft stuff but i've been doing tt so often and i didn't haf much time to make sth really nice. Been watching this HK drama about baking and stuff where they make lots n lots of too-pretty-to-eat cakes and that made me wanna make cakes like those too (someday I will...) I've liked baking, but usually my role is just a baker assistant to my mom and hafn been baking since SMoo made my life soo super hectic. So i decided to bake my first cake just for Fenny *awwww....*

I started experimenting with brownies for my dad's b'day, which was on Feb also. It was just an excuse to mess up the kitchen actually cuz my dad dun really like cakes. I didn't know baking is a lot of work, esp since I'm a noob and I did everything by myself . Really thankful for my ever-so-patient, helpful and encouraging mom. I've this habit of starting sth and not finishing it. So when i baked, i dun usually finish the cleaning up. Thankfully my wonderful mom did the cleaning and washing up (I do the cleaning up now, fyi). The brownies turned ok tho it looked NOTHING like in the picture. It tasted ok too, for a first attempt. It was juz a bit dry when it was sposed to be fudgy. Thankful for the ppl who agreed to be my guinea pigs (they're still alive, fyi).

So I braced myself for baking cakes. And guess how my first choc cake turned out? Let's just say my mom jokingly said that I've invented a new kind of cake, called the 'Volcano' and that it looked cool. erm... thanks, mom.

It wasn't bad (nth's really bad if u use choc, i think), but definitely not presentable. I realised i read the recipe wrongly. It asked for fresh milk. I used powdered milk o.O

"If at first you don't succeed, try n try again". So try again, I did. And this is how it looked like.

Still looked like a volcano, but at least better; the first one was lopsided. I really think the oven was the problem (and of course, my lousy skill). Even my mom had already warned me b4. Uneven heat, I think.

But after an Extreme Makeover....

Not bad, eh....

The b'day girl and my cake :):)

The 2 people who seemed to enjoy the cake the most. haha....

thx for the nice comments guys. Really appreciate it :):)

Hmmm but i think it was juz Ernest's ploy to make me make him my signature potato salad, which he likes very much. hee...

Another Extreme Makeover done to the first 'Volcano'

Ittadakimasu! :)

If u notice, actually the top and bottom layer are different cuz they are from different batch. The top part was made by my mom (cuz one of the volcanoes cudnt be used :P). It's drier but my mom added rum to it.

The bottom part is softer, more spongy and more chocolatey. Made by me, of coz.

All the guys who ate it (abt 6 of them), except for one prefer the top, while all the girls like the bottom. I didnt tell them tt my mom made the top part until after they ate it.

I'm not trying to be psychologist or anything, but these are the possible analysis:

Guys like motherly touch. I'm not saying girls don't. But er how shud i say this... guys still prefer their mother than their girlfriend/girl-friend.
Guys. Alcohol. 'Nuff said.
Girls are naturally 'soft-natured'. And we make ppl happy. (if u dunno alr, choc induce the production of endorphine - the feel-good chemical) In essence, we are sweet, soft, and nice ;)
Whereas, guys likes to act tough, hard-headed and dry. LOL.... generalisation, of coz.
(go infer some more)

Okie, the end of the long post. gah! shud be studying my tax now. ciao!

2007-03-11T23:31:00.000+08:00

Yay!! Finally i can access my account again. Stupid blogger waste my precious time trying to fix the problem. But yay, it's alrite now :)

Good Luck CNY Panties

2007-02-15T22:03:00.000+08:00

For those who noe me well, you'd know that I'm not exactly the luckiest person on earth. I keep losing my stuff, money (if added together, i can buy a brand new nikon D80 or 2 of Canon Rebel TXi. seriously, i lost US$2,000 once), i'm accident-prone, keep missing my bus/train, etc etc...

So when I reached home today, my mom told me, "I bought you a new red panties, cuz it's chinese new year. Besides, it'll bring you good luck."

I dunno what makes her think that red panties bring good luck. I guess she got the idea from this chinese drama where one of the characters wears red underwear for a job interview cuz according to him, it'll bring him good luck.

Neways, thot it's juz a plain red panties (btw she bought me lyk a redish-maroon panties for good luck also. but i've never worn them). But no.... it's a very CNY-ish bright red panties WITH a golden pig picture in front. Lol.... my mom.... *shakes head*

Oh btw this panties not cheap ok - it costs $6.90. To me, it's quite expensive for a very obiang panties...(btw, i dunno how to explain obiang in english. any1?)

For those curious cats out there, here's a snapshot of it:

PS: Don't come n ask me if i'm wearing this ok, cuz i won't. Unless I really really desperately need good luck .

2007-02-12T17:08:00.000+08:00

Been blog browsing nowadays. Not very keen to write on my own. Nth really interesting. Sometimes it's more interesting to read other ppl's blog (which i dun do very often) cuz i can catch up on what i missed, be amused or juz recently clear my misconception.

Yep, i stumbled, well not really stumbled, I saw some1 reading this person's, named breezy, blog. Yep, i noe breezy personally but not tt close. And it was during AIS class, which is super duper boring beyond words. So I decided to check it out. Well, let's just say that blog prove to me, yet again, that i shudn't judge a book by its cover. All along I thought breezy's life is wonderfully perfect. Breezy's popular, haf a high-profile, rich, smart, haf nice bod, haf lotsa friends and breezy's life's definitely more exciting than mine.

But breezy's not happy, so I read. Breezy thinks life sucks, that God may haf been 'sleeping' and that no matter how put hard work is put, it's hardly enuf. I dunno. But I feel that breezy's just trying too hard or never satisfied.

Sadly tho, i think i know the feeling. Like you've done all you can, but due to some circumstances, the result is still not as you expected. That's why I learned to lower down my expectations - not that I've high expectation of anything, including myself, in the first place. One thing I'm still find it hard to do is to "let go". I'm the kind of person who would think over a matter over and over and over again even tho it's already over and there's nth more I can do.

Oh well, this is just a random entry. It's just that reading others' blogs can open up my eyes about certain things.

Neways, saw this in teddy's blog and I find it pretty amusing. So I shall just pass it on.

i know you only want me for my body... -by Prawn

why do you always distance youreself away from me?-by Lizard

not everyone without pants is a sicko.-by Winnie the Pooh

not everything that is green is healthy-by Phlegm

why do you always disown me in front of other people??-by Fart

oh stop it! stop making me into a circle!!-by Booger

not all types of blood are suitable to be donated.-by Menstruation

2007-02-02T11:34:00.000+08:00

So ironic. When I was a clueless, naive little girl I couldn't wait to grow up. Now, I wish I never grow up. Well ok, maybe I've never really grown up. So let me say again in the correct term - I wish I never grow older. I seriously hate growing older. More responsibilities, more worries, more headaches, more facade, more lies, more nightmares that turn into reality and the list goes on....

Gah, I told myself to be positive. But it's so hard. And I guess now I'll take a break before finally deciding that being positive is totally useless...

2007-01-04T10:11:00.000+08:00

Gosh, classes never fail to bore me to death. Blog, I shall then. Besides I haven't 'close' the year properly.

2006 has been quite a er... tough year. Personally and globally. My grades are waaay lower than expected despite the effort I had put in. Some family probs. Pastor leaving our church. Disasters, terorist threats etc etc all around the globe. It was definitely not that fab a year.

However, I do have a good feeling about year 2007. Well firstly, it's got '7' in it and 7 is a perfect number (according to the bible). It's one of my fav numbers too. (btw 6 is bad bad no. '666' remember? no wonder...). Secondly, the economists are quite optimistic abt 2007. Thirdly, Saddam's dead... Ok, the last point is irrelevant - to me, at least. Well, actually I don't have any reason to be hopeful about year 2007 except that 7 is a perfect number. Call me superstitious but I do believe in it. So I'm expecting 2007 to be a better, if not great, year *fingers crossed*

Notwithstanding the optimism, 2007 did start kinda badly. Planes crashing, ships sinking, bombs exploding and the list goes on.... Sadder still, more friends are leaving. Karen left on Mon. Daniel left on Tues. My sis is leaving tmr. Roch is leaving on Mon nxt wk. Even Ralph is thinking of goin to MC, too. If he goes, there'll be 4 Bratz in MC.

Bratz is dwindling again. It's like a phase, y'know. Most of the Bratz I knew when I just came to Sg are all gone, except for Andy, Ald and Gaz. Most went off for further studies, some just left. Now it's happening again. Sigh... I should've insisted on goin to OZ. Then I would have been the one leaving, not being left.

I've never thought airports to be lonely places. In fact, when I was younger, I found them fun. Dad used to travel lots and Mom would bring me watch the planes taking off, which I found fascinating. As I grow older, the novelty wears off. And after reading Ralph's entry, I have to agree with him, unfortch. Airport, particularly the departure hall, can be a rather sad place. It's a place where people say goodbyes, not knowing when they'll meet again or if they'll ever meet again, but still hoping they'll meet again.

On a happier note, I heard some earliteens are coming down (literally) to join Bratz. That's good :) But, I'll miss those who are leaving (yes, I think i'll miss my bratty sis) and those already left cuz we had grown so much closer. Argh... I feel like transferring to MC now :

School again....

2007-01-04T10:04:00.000+08:00

4th day of year 2007. First day of school in the year 2007. Sigh… definitely dread going to school later. I've been out every single day since x'mas, visiting friends homes or busy in the kitchen preparing food and welcoming ppl to our home. Thus, the lack of entries. Btw, blogger sux. I dunno why but I can't upload any pics.

I haven't even started going to school and am already missing my hols. I think i made use of my Dec hols really well...too well, perhaps. A really packed Dec, but totally fun fun FUN! Actually I had too much fun till I got sick; flu at first and now I keep coughing. Too much festive seasons goodies, I suppose. I think I have enough choc to last me several months. But I decided to share them. Hee....Ain't I nice?

Well, I guess I'd better get ready for school. *groan*

I now it's late, but.... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Shop Till You Drop

2006-12-31T22:50:00.000+08:00

Here's part 2 to my Dec hols.

As I've mentioned, a day after the PF camp, I went to Bangkok for holidays. It was my first time travelling purely for enjoyment without parents. I've travelled alone before of course. But those are like for missionary or school trips with a big group of ppl. So yea. So exciting!

I tagged along with the Perera's cuz they happened to be going to BKK. Besides, Lakshi and Dinu can speak Thai, so it'll be easy to buy stuff there. I tell you, goin to bkk let me experience the true meaning of 'Shop till you drop'. I litterally shop till I dropped. Every single day spent in bkk never see me goin back to hotel empty-handed. For one whole week, less the 2 days spent in MC, we just shop and shop and shop. There are sooo many cheap but good stuff. Most of them are from the latest fashion, too. I really regret not bringing more $$.

If you know me, you'd definitely concur that I don't really fancy shopping. I can go without shopping for months and I won't even miss it. And if I do go shopping, usu my shopping buddy will get frustrated with me cuz I'd take ages to decide on a buy. I'd really consider if my buy is worth the money and if it's sth that I would really use, not just crams my room and collects dust.
So when I was in bkk, even I surprise myself. On average, my 'contemplating' time was sth like 3 mins. That's like at least 5X faster than normal. Moreover, we travelled to Naram, Central World, MBK/Siam area and even waking up at 6am in the morning to go to the morning market at Bobae (on diff days of course). Seriously, I was just so exhausted, that after we came back from shopping in Naram on the last day, I just K.O.ed on the bed. I was down with fever and my gastric acted up. Talkin about 'shop till u drop', huh? I guess my body was just not used to such excessive shopping. LOL....

Bkk is truly a great shopping place. From high-end shops to road-side stalls. I wish I had brought my cam around all the time. The malls are superb. And cuz we came during Dec, they're all decorated in pretty ornaments and bright, brilliant lights. It definitely felt more like x'mas in bkk than in sg. The decorations are really amazing!

Oh and talking about Siam Paragon, VivoCity is nothing compared to it. And all the great malls - Siam Paragon, Siam centre, MBK, etc, - are located within walking distance from one another. Yes, the Orchard area is sth like tt too. BUT what really differentiates is that there different malls have different shops; unlike here, where u can get almost exactly the same shops in every malls (which untill now still baffles me why in the world they wanna built similar malls just next to each other).

Anyhow, after I came back i realised that I actually didn't shop THAT much. I guess goin to so many shopping places and being surrounded by shops and stalls gave me the illusion that i've shopped like hell. oh and worse, i dun actually like some of the stuff tt much cuz i bought them on impulse. sigh.... But still, most of them are really good buys and am happy! :):)

I dunno where all my $$ gone to tho. Food maybe. Oh shite, dun get me started on food now (i almost forgot!). The food there are GREAT, FANTASTIC, and FINGER-LICKIN' GOOD. I ate papaya salad and tom yum till I got the 'runs'. LOL... but i loved it :D

Well, it's less than half an hr to new yr now. Even my entry don't seem so coherent now. Haha... whatever. Pics time! then I'll go for countdown :P

Rain rain go away!

2006-12-28T22:37:00.000+08:00

Oh gosh, will the rain ever stop?! sigh... because of the friggin' rain i've like 2 cancelled movie dates. Everyone just feel so lazy to go out of the house, including myself. So the only movie i managed to watch this week is Curse of the Golden Flower. And that's cuz we watched it at J8, which is only 10mins away from home :P

Caution: Spoiler ahead.

Anyways, 5 of us (the Perera girls, my sis n I) juz decided to go out and watch some movie like less than 2 hours b4 the movie started. Wanted to go watch Eragon, but the showtime was rather late. So we decided on CGF. I don't usually watch non-western show in the cinema, but CGF looks kinda interesting. It looked like it's gonna be a hit, something like the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Gong Li stars in it, 'nuff said.

To be honest, the show's really predictable. I predicted every plot correctly. Well, almost. I guess I didn't predict that the youngest son was gonna be a murderer and everyone, except the king, was gonna die.

Although the plot's predictable (as u watch the show at least), but the story's still very twisted, I think. I heard that the show's based on history. If it's true, China must have had real sick people as rulers during the Tang dynasty. If not, the scriptwriter must be sick to think up of such craziness. Like I said, everyone, except the king, died (well, i'm not sure abt the queen, but i think she died; it's not explicitly shown.).

Basically, the king wants to kill the queen by making her drink poisonous "medicine". So the queen plans to rebel, assisted by the 2nd son, during the crysanthemum fest. Btw, the queen is having an affair with the 1st son (not her real son of coz). So the killing frenzy occurs during the fest. Begun by the youngest son killing the 1st son. The poor lil boy was confused after eavesdropping on conversations and he became angry, u see. So the king got angry cuz his fav son is killed. So he kills his youngest son. 2 down.

Next, the 2nd son heads the rebellion. Sadly, he's outnumbered and lost. The crazy king then made the mother and son sit with him on the table and went on with the fest. He'll forgive the 2nd son absurdity if he'll make the queen drink the medicine. Being a filial son, he killed himself. Erm, along the way, the clichéd, said-to-be-dead-but-actually-alive mother of the first son appeared and her whole new fam got killed. So yea, crazy, huh?

Although predictable, it's still quite a good show, in a weird way. Gong Li, as always, is a good actress. So is Chow Yun-Fat. Jay Chou? Erm... oh well, he's a first-timer, isn't he? What really amused me was that as I look around after the show ended, I noticed there are quite a number of ppl watching it as a family. Quite a lot of kids, some grandmoms and dads. I mean, plot-wise this is definitely NOT a family movie. Secondly, the show's quite bloody. Honestly, those parents shud noe wat kind of movie that is.

Y'know, after the show we went shopping. lakshi was showing some clothes but no one paid attention. Then my sis said,"Hey u guys better listen to what she's saying. Who knows she might be like the youngest son"

Maybe I should be kinder to my sis, too. Hmmm...

PF camp

2006-12-25T21:25:00.000+08:00

As promised from now on, there will be pics galore! I have like tonnes of pics. What can I say, we're a bunch of action-loving vainpots. LOLs..... It makes life easier too since I don't haf to say much. Hehe...

Well, these ones are taken during PF camp. It was a lovely, although unfortunately not very challenging camp. More like a relax and enjoy kinda camp. Totally not like all the camps I had before. The ground wasn't even that hard. AND we got a PALACE (as nicknamed by the other envious PFers)! Yep. The tent was the largest and there were only Sheena and I. Great, huh? :D

Think the only tough times we had to go through was during mealtimes. You see, we didn't haf a portable stove, neither did we haf parafin. No point finding for firewood, cuz it was PASIR RIS PARK - whereever can u find firewood?! Besides it's illegal to set up fire on the ground. Sooo we made use of the BBQ pit and cooked over charcoal. Yep, u read it rite....charcoal. I wondered if cooking using charcoal was included in the PF manual. Cuz i tell u, it took us forever to cook. There wasn't even proper fire (those who've done bbq-ing wud noe what I mean). But we managed somehow. Cuz oh we are the Pathfinders strong!

Daytimes was great. Not too warm but enough sun to give me slight tan. Nighttimes were really lovely. As we lie inside our tent, we could feel the sea breeze blowing, hear the palm trees rustling, the waves crashing, and Daniel playing the guitar faintly (he was emo-ing, u see). Bliss!

The kids were well-behaved, surprisingly. None complained of the er... rather bland food. They're such onz bunch of kiddos too :):)

Pics time!

Yay! for Pathfinders!!

Our "palace" before being striked down. It's my fav color too :):)

Look how big it was compared to the other tents. Btw inside that puny tent were Dan and Shan. Poor Shan cudn't even stretch his long legs fully. We did consider exchanging our tent. BUT....

We love Pathfinders!

The rest of the pics are still with aunty Alicia, btw.

I Want A Bright & Sunny X'mas!

2006-12-24T22:41:00.000+08:00

Bleah xP

It's been raining the whole bleedy day. Actually it's been raining the past 2 weeks. What a gloomy X'mas eve. Had wanted to go downtown to catch the Samba's performance but the weather just makes one wanna stay home and get cosy under the warm blanket. A cup of hot cocoa would be splendid too.

So here I am, on a x'mas eve, sitting in front of my trusty laptop sorting out the photos from my holidays (yes, i finally got them fr shan n alden) and listening to x'mas songs. Feet wrapped up in old but comfy woollen socks. It beats being shoved left and right by eager merrymakers and ~~tormented~~ serenaded by the ~~croaking~~ singing of the too-many-that-you-don't-noe-which-belongs-to-which carollers.

Speaking of carolling, the Adventurers and the Pathfinders went carolling yesterday to 4 houses. Most of the songs have high notes, luckily the kiddos can reach them. That would be my second time carolling. The first time was at Genesis resturant on last Wednesday. I guess we did fine. We got the kiddos to cover us up yesterday While at Genesis, although there we just 7 of the youths, I noticed most of the diners finished their food and no one suddenly ran off the the restroom. LOL.... Still, you won't be seeing me belting my hearts out at Orchard Rd anytime soon, if not ever, I'm afraid.

Anyways I hope tmr will be a much brighter and sunnier day! That will be my x'mas wish then. And my mom's too, i think. She's been complaining of the laundry not getting dry.

Hope all of you have been good boys and girls. You wouldn't want Santa Claus to strike u off his list, would u? ;)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! and good night :):)

Happy Hols!!

2006-12-18T22:55:00.000+08:00

HAPPY DECEMBER!! alrite, i think i blog less during hols than during term time. hee.... I have my excuse ok. Soooo many things, so many occassions right after my exams that I dunno where to start. And it had been a flurry of packing, unpacking and re-packing for the past 2.5 weeks. And I have no pics yet! *groan* My cam still with my sis, who is like thousands of miles across the indian ocean (or is it pacific?!).

So I shall juz briefly recount what happened and will fill u in with the details when the pics are ready ;)

Rite, so 2 days after my exams, on the 1st of Dec, I was off to Pasir Ris park for Pathfinder camp, which lasted for 3 days 2 nights. Then 2 days later after i got back, off i was to the land of freedom (ie. Thailand) and of course the land of mindless shopping for a full week!! Then rite after I got back fr Bkk, the next day I was gone for Youth Camp at Port Dickson. And so it was home sweet home yesterday nite. Phew....

I'm down with flu now and still kinda tired. So I shall just wait for the pics. After all a picture is worth a thousand words rite. hehe.... (*juz an excuse for my laziness to write*). In the meantime I shall catch up on my readings. Till then... :):)

I Told You...

2006-11-15T18:30:00.000+08:00

I bet many u are familiar with this image.

Was on lots ppl's msn display pic. I wonder why...

I told you SMoo was killing lots of ppl (me included). Well, for you skeptics out there. Here's proof:

Found today on the floor of SMoo's library.

He'll be dearly missed....

Disclaimer: The content of this blog is meant for people with sense of humour. Otherwise, scoot!

Smooode-EE

2006-11-15T09:44:00.001+08:00

Meow... In CAT class now. But no darlings, it's not a class where we get to play with our furry friends. I wish it is tho. Instead, we learn Excel in depth. Urgh... can get really boring.

Last week of school before exams start. And my performance has been far from satisfactory. I hafn been consistent either. Hmm so what am i doing blogging now? Haha... ok whateva. I got too many things to do in so little time that I dunno what to do now (^^")

So I guess I'll share this hillarious video (also for myself to de-stress). Hee...

Btw, there are four parts to this series. Go to youtube to see the rest (search: Smooth-e babyface thai). I must say, the Thais are very creative in their advertisments. Tee hee.... I like when the lady say, with Thai accent, "Smoode-ee baby fae foam..." Lolx.... No offence to my Thai friends ;)

Grateful for the little things

2006-11-01T11:32:00.000+08:00

Nowadays, I've been too busy to be thankful for the little things in life. Then I saw this funny video on Sideburnz blog. May seem silly and you may laugh at it (I did LMAO). But come to think of it, if we were to appreciate even the tiniest blessing that we get, we'll be a much happier person and this world will be a much better place to live in.

So, the next time u see me frowning (I seem to be doing that A LOT lately), please remind me to be grateful for all the blessings I've got no matter how small they are; particularly do remind me how fortunate I am to be in SMoo. I keep forgetting.

Count your blessings

Name them one by one

Count your many blessings

See what God has done

Meanwhile, enjoy!

Tree-top Walk

2006-10-28T23:57:00.000+08:00

FINALLY! Went to the HSBC Tree-top Walk this afternoon with the Pathfinders. Been asking ard for ppl to go with me for like the longest time. hee...

The walk started fr Venus Drive carpark. Thot it was just a short walk to get to the bridge, but it was like a 2km walk on steep, rough trails. And i was wearing beach slippers, cuz left my shoes in school. Very uncomfy, i tell u. But it's ok. If I could survive a hike in a trail-less jungle (real jungle, mind u) with an injured leg in Sarawak, MacRitchie trail was piece of cake ;)

Neways, some of them complained that the tree-top walk was too short. But I wasn't complaining. I gotta admit I haf a tiny weeny bit phobia of height. To make matters worse, dark clouds hung ominously above us and there were occasional lightning and some of them had to mention that some suspension bridge in Malaysia had actually collapsed before. So yea, it was quite a erm... freaky fun experience walking on a suspension bridge. Unfortunately, we didn't spot any interesting critters during the hike. Only monkeys. Lots of them. Duh... Like we dun already them in our group :P Oh btw, those monkey are ferociou, man. At least they sounded like it. When we first heard them, we thought they were boars.

After the bridge was another loooong walk to the ranger station. Lots of climbing. And some kidos fr our gp went missing. See lah, act tough n walk fast. Hehe.

Lesson learnt: Walk slowly but steadily; and enjoy the nature. Oh and do read d signs. Sheesh, and to think they are Pathfinders. Cud still get themselves lost even with all the road signs...

But thank God, every1 got back safely and it only drizzled a teeny bit. Better still, Aunt Alicia rewarded us with Mint Choc imported directly from Sweden :)

Warm weather + haze = >.<

2006-10-19T22:50:00.000+08:00

Creeps, really hate today's weather. It's so warm and still hazy. But the moment I turn on the air-con, I feel sleepy. Grr...I can't concentrate on my corp rep. Help! Tolong! Tasukete kure!!

Oh i'm beginning to dislike my blog template. So.... dark. Wanna change but no time to meddle with HTML n stuff. (- -")

Righto, back to my boring notes.

Dreamy S'pore

2006-10-18T22:28:00.000+08:00

This morning set off from home pretty early cuz gotta rehearse for CAT presentation. While I was walkin towards the MRT, my surroundings look so dreamy. It was misty and when I looked up and saw the beautiful red dish sun. Basically I felt like I was in some mountaneous area. I felt strangely contented, but at the same time, choked. Oh wait... it wasn't mist. It was the haze. Sigh.... Why is the haze still here?! What's Indo govt been doing? I hate staying indoors all the time. Too much air-con's definitely not good for my skin >.<

Neways, today decided to do some good deed. Yep... I donated my blood. Again :)

Surprisingly, there were quite a number of ppl, which was good n bad. Good cuz then more lives can be saved. Bad cuz d whole process took abt 1.5 hrs. 80% of the time was waiting time. The blood-drawing itself took only abt 5 mins. Prolly cuz i was quite pissed, so d blood flowed rather quickly. haha... hey they served ppl who came later than me ok. Hmph....

Poor Krish wanted to donate also. But got rejected - for the 3rd time! He was pretty bitter about it. Haha... That's y lah. Take care of urself.

Okie gotta go mug again for corp reporting, which is a very dull lesson. But i gotta make up for my last quiz which got as good as 0. Yea, my prediction was quite accurate, unfortch. Saaa, i promise I won't brood over it anymore. 2 days were enuf...

My Mom's First Time

2006-10-15T22:57:00.000+08:00

There will always be that 'first time' no matter how old you are.

Guess what?! Mom donated her blood this afternoon... for the first time. Lolx. SO proud of her. She's by no means young - she's in her late 50's, mind you. So yea, way to go, mom! =D

If my mom can do it, what r u waiting for Shans, Cymies, and all u chicken-hearted guys? Heez...

Hmm, feel lyk donating my blood this Wed at Smoo. After all my turn's due already. Anyone wanna join me??

2006-10-13T14:59:00.000+08:00

Pixies!

Argh! Which idiot actually focus on background rather than foreground?! *box own head*

I Want...

2006-10-12T23:18:00.000+08:00

It's Thurs - 3 more days till break is over. Have been quite unproductive. I noe I should be mugging now, since all my tests n quizzes have been extremely unsatisfactory. Yet, I chose to go to Esplande's Glutton Bay to have dinner today.

There are sposed to be at least 10 ppl to go, but ended up with 6 ppl (and the 2 of them came much later. Haiyo, tt couple...). Ppl juz love last minute cancellation, don't they? So my plan to go earlier to take some pixies was cancelled because I had to wait for Fens. I couldn't possible let her walk alone with the 2 freshie boys, can I? Who knows what they'd do. Lolx... j/k. The Sujus are very nice ppl :)

So yep, by the time she finished her meeting, it was too dark to take nice pixies. The stupid cumulonimbus cloud also chose to come at tt time. Making the sky even darker. Luckily, it only drizzled for awhile, otherwise we won't be able to haf dinner at Glutton Bay.

Dinner was good. Had some nice chat. And after the couple arrived, we took some pixies. The last few turned out really nice. Love the S'pore River/CBD background with all it's lights. Too bad every1 was rather tired. We cud've walked to Fullerton side and take more pics. There are nicer places there. But oh well...

So yea, I've been experimenting with D70s (courtesy of Alds). Sigh... I want one *hint* Or a Canon RebelTX *hint*. My good ol' Canon's no fun anymore. There's even D80 and Canon EOS 3**sth now. But too expensive. Oh btw, my b'day's coming in exactly 2 mths (wow, what a coincidence). So, *cough-hint* getting a DSLR will be fab *cough-hint*

Hee... ok I should go sleep now. Gonna take a morning walk in the park tmr and shoot some more pixies :)

One Piece!

2006-10-10T21:39:00.000+08:00

Some of u haf asked me, "Wth is One Piece or Strawhat Pirate?"

Well, my friend, One Piece (created by Eiichiro Oda) is one of the best anime/manga I've ever watch/read. Or should I say THE BEST (I personally prefer the anime). I love it so very much that I'm gonna make an entry dedicated to it.

Basically, One Piece tells the journey of the Strawhat Pirate crew in search of a treasure called One Piece, which was left behind by the deceased pirate king, Gol D. Roger and the pursuing of each of the character's dream.

One Piece is probably one of the most comical anime ever, with a very interesting twist in storyline. Watch One Piece and be prepared to be transported to a world full of wonderfully amazing adventure - an adventure full of action, suspense, laughter, and craziness. It tells great story of friendship, perseverance, bravery, etc. You'll get to laugh, rave, balk, cringe, cry and smile together with the characters. Believe me, once you start, you won't wanna stop.

While watching, I often find myself laughing out loud or raising my hand while punching the air, saying "Yosh!" As u might've known, I'm an easily bored person. One Piece has reached its 279th episode and 7th movie and yet, I'm still begging for more. Every week I'll be eagerly waiting to download the latest episode from ADC or watch it from YouTube.

Alright, enough of all these praise-singing. Just go watch and find out for yourself. Like I said, it's reached ep 279, which is a lot (I've been watching since I was in sec sch). If you're interested, I suggest you watch starting from ep 263, which is about their adventure in Ennies Lobby. If not, watch movie 4, which I think is one of the best ones. Just type "One Piece (ep. no)" or "movie 4" on YouTube. Let me know if you've become a new convert =D

PS: If u wanna find out more about One Piece, click here.

Phew...

2006-10-09T23:07:00.001+08:00

Phew. The hectic weeks are over, temporarily. I can breathe a little now after all those brain-juice-draining muggings. Only for a day tho, cuz tho it's term break now, my week is fully booked. But well, looking at the bright side, its better than nothing.

Still, residual of the negative feelings are threatening to surface every now and then. Just got the finance result back. It's pretty disappointing. Sigh.... I hate having these kinda feelings. How I wish I could escape to a different world - the "One Piece" world. Become a Strawhat Pirate crew. Where what really matters is pursuing your dreams, no matter how silly they are, and having fun even tho you are constantly being bombarded by obstacles cuz ur being surrounded by crazy but wonderful and genuine people, while travelling around the world.

I wish I dunno the feeling of being a failure. I wish I could be like that little kid that came with his parents during cell group. He is too young to understand the worries of life. He kept running around the house, jump here and there and kept laughing for no particular reason (or at least reason that grown-ups like me won't understand). I miss being carefree.

Arh! Why am thinking about these things. Now, now, I shouldn't brood over such things, should I?

On happier note, BRATz choir had its second special music last Sabbath. I am proud to say that we sang pretty well, relatively speaking of course. Even the adults were like, "My, that was a beautiful special music. Should do that more often." Haha... The song was lovely, too. I personally love that song - "If the saviour stood beside me". The only minor glitch was that the pianist forgot some parts. Hee.... (It's ok Zoee, we still love u!)

Alrite then, since it's midterm break I think I should spare some time for myself tomorrow. Wake up late, buy myself a tub of Rocky Road ice cream for breakfast and watch my fav anime at the comfort of my air-conditioned room, before heading down to Fenny's to moon/star-gaze.

Then maybe I can make a more coherent entry :P

Totally Screwed

2006-10-04T11:29:00.000+08:00

Alright, it's official that my grades are, more of less, screwed.

Just finished CAT midterm, and yep, u guessed it. I just sat down there, scratching my head and sighing. Dunno whether I should cry or laugh.

So, in summary:
CAT - screwed (cudn't do midterm)
FT - screwed (assgn got penalise heavily)
Corp Rep - screwed (cudn't do quiz)

Stay tune for more:
Finance - ?
Co. Law - ?

Weird. The harder I try, the more fucked up everything becomes.

Maybe I really shud go back to Indo and find a husband (rich one, of course), just like what everybody suggests...

What's wrong?!

2006-09-25T21:25:00.000+08:00

Okay, I'm in a i-hate-skool mood again. Had a mock interview for FT this morning. Dun think i did well, relatively speaking. Just my luck to have been put in a class of seniors with highly impressive resume and experience with interviews. I must have sounded like a super noobie. Besides, even I realised I sounded like I was reading a script *groan*

And surprise surprise! I totally screwed my corp rep quiz. As in TOTALLY. If I'm lucky, I'll get 15/75. Yep. It's that bad. Sigh... I just dunno what went wrong. My brain just freezed on me. I didn't even know what the *toot* the questions were asking. Oh gosh... I'm so dead. And corp rep is my acct core module.

Seriously I'm just so pissed. Seems like the harder I try, the lousier my results became. This term everything seems to go wrong even tho I think I've put in more effort. Is it because I've actually not put in more effort? Am I just deluding myself? One thing for sure, I've got a serious problem with time management. Anyone can tutor me?

So, during class I couldn't concentrate anymore. Felt really like crap. Thank goodness I have my ever-willing-to-listen-to-my-whinings friends. 3 of them even accompanied me to Secret Recipe to have dessert (chocolate!!), so I can de-stress. In the end, we chatted and had some laughs. I realised that whenever we share sth funny, it usually is about our childhood. Sigh... it goes to show that that was the time we were happier, or at least to me.

Alright. I should snap out of it and start chiong-ing my company law. Sianz :(

We didn't finish last!

2006-09-24T20:37:00.000+08:00

While others were aiming to be winners, I just prayed that our team didn't finish last. I didn't wanna put too much pressure on the team. I was just so nervous before the race seeing that the other runners look so fit - the guys were like all muscles. The butterflies in my stomach were flying erratically (prolly because they were so excited to see hot guys abound. Lol... j/k)

Thank goodness, my prayers were answered! In fact, we were far from last. Out of 20 teams, I think we were like 14th or sth. And the freshie team got like 5th or 6th. Great improvement from 1st n 2nd from the bottom 2 years ago! RunAbout was a fun experience. Never haf I run so hard before. It was quite a feeling after finishing the race. My head was throbbing like it was gonna explode, my feet felt lyk they were invested with ants, and my chest hurt pretty bad. Shows that i wasn't the fittest person around. Hee....

One thing tho - I shud've run faster. I noe at that time i really cudn't force myself to run any faster. But, if only i had more determination, i bet i could run a little faster. But then again, I run in the name of fun, peace, laughter n joy. In the end everyone was happy n we took loads of pics. Yep, and I kept laughing. I think I freaked out some ppl. Blame the adrenaline :P

Oh yea, and because of the gym-ing for the past 2 wks, I actually lost 2 kg. HAR HAR HAR! Eat that, Andy and Ralph. Who's the babat now?!

Oh n my mom was so nice. She prepared me a great dinner after the race - a wokful of korean hot & spicy fish noodle and magnum ice cream for dessert. Mommies do know best :D Only thing now, I think i gain the 1 kg back. (^^")

It's Official o_O

2006-09-21T12:05:00.000+08:00

Okay.... So i'm officially joining the RunAbout. Run wat?? Well, it's an annual event smu has where basically we just have to run for 650m around d school. Yep, u read rite. Caressa, the hasn't-been-exercising-properly-for-ages is gonna run in a race. Gangway, ppl!

I was so misrep, thot I only had to run for a bit. Cuz according to the map, the whole route is sposed to be run by 5 ppl (the map show 1 round with 5 little men, duh). so i purposely chose to be the 3rd runner, which means I just haf to run straight, on flat ground. Easy peasy, right? But horror of horrors, every runner has to run the whole round. Which means... I haf to run up 2 straircases, n down another staircase, then round d skool. Gasp!

But it's ok, so i thought. Uno problemo. I can do it. And off I went for the pre-race familiarisation walk (tho in d end everyone, incl moi, ran). Boy, i was only up d second staircase where I started gasping for air n felt my legs betraying me. And I wasn't even halfway to finishing line. Jeepers creepers!! Dousun daiyo?!?

Oh well, we know all along we won't win. After all, we're up against those sport CCAs and the extremists (Btw, i'm entering the CCA cat. for d indo community cca. haha...) However, I do hope we won't be last *cross fingers* My wonderful frenz even offered some methods to ensure my team's winning albeit totally absurd, such as poisoning the other runners, using some dark magic to curse them and even wearing bikini ("To make them puke or faint", said my not-so-wonderful-friend-anymore).

I must have a loose screw when I registered for the race. Sigh...I gotta rest now. Really exhausted from all those running n last minute gym-ing n sleeping late for the past few days. Gotta reserve my energy for Friday's race :S

:) / :(

2006-09-17T22:09:00.000+08:00

A pretty interesting week, albeit very exhausting (unfortch, it ended really badly) Finally, finished the oh-so-draggy Co. Law project. Watched the Indons performed for Art Fest. And tried out spinning class.

The performances was really good despite some glitches here n there. The funny one was during the Saman dance by the freshies. Interestingly, everyone made the same mistake. Talking about solidarity, eh. But, they're still really good. At least they didn't skip any part, like we did. Hehe...

Oh and the spinning class was interesting. Viny and I were just curious as to what "spinning" class is like. What I had in mind was sth like we juz do aerobics which involve a lot of, well, spinning around. But no.... the class is basically a cycling class. What we did was just cycling on the stationary bike for an hour, intensely. During the first 15 mins, my legs felt like they were gonna drop off. Fortunately, after awhile they got accustomed to the workout.

Like I said, the week ended rather badly. Sigh... whenever i think abt it, I really feel like kicking myself in the butt. A stupid mistake, but cost me at least 40% of my assignment grade. Gulp...

Yep, tt's my week at a glance. Wanted to write more, but seriously, I can't remember much :S Sigh... Gotta do lots more work. As in A LOT more WORK. I need more time! Gahh... Even my blog's kinda incoherent now >.<

Hectic Week!

2006-09-08T22:57:00.000+08:00

This past week was super duper hectic, as expected from the Mugger's U. Nevertheless it was totally draining. 2 essays, 1 excel assignment (it didn't help that I'm still quite a software-idiot), 1 report + preparation for presentation. Last nite I even had to make do with 3 hours of sleep. Still I'm not so sleepy now. Even this morning I woke up feeling quite alert. Either my biological clock is screwed up or the adrenaline rush has not subsided. Or both.

Everyday for the past week was just mad rush. Rush to class, rush to finish assignments, rush for CCAs, rush to do laundry, rush to wash dishes. It didn't help that my parents went on a holiday and I fell sick. No one cooked, did the chores or woke me up in the morning. Been eating Kopitiam's MSG-laden food and other rubbish. No wonder I'm still sick. Gahhh! A week of parents-free is wasted. I'm so pissed!!!

I'm expecting an equally busy schedule next week. Sigh.... I'd better brace myself up >.<

But on a happier note, there are few nice things that happened (I've promised myself, I shud ~~try~~ always be thankful, remember).

I found out that I can actually change the channel on the treadmill's, as well as other equipment's, in-built TV. Shucks, been watching Kid's Central all this while.

Been making friends with the juniors. They are a nice bunch of people, and pretty helpful too.

Somehow I'm closer to the other Indons now. And that's a good thing in so many ways.

Dawn and I tried for Samba's audition (the percussion gp, mind you. not the dance).

Oh and found out that muesli cereal with yoghurt tastes so much better than with milk.

Right. Now, I can sense the fairies splashing the sleepy dust on me already. G'nite world :)

I Survived a Night Home Alone

2006-09-04T09:33:00.000+08:00

Yea that's right. I survived an entire day and night being home alone. 3 cheers for Caressa!! Lolx

To u it might be no big deal. But to me, it's my first time spending the night alone. As in ALONE. No sis, no maid, no mommy. My only companion was my laptop and an MSN window full of crazy ppl. I'm glad i've them, albeit nosy and gossipy.

I had wanted to stay at Fenny's house. But tt irritating BH didn't allow me. Then again I thot,"Hey I'm a big girl. Being home alone is no big deal. If that Macaulay Culkin can do it, so can I."

Many times some random thoughts occured in my head. Thoughts that make me wanna run straight to Fenny's house. But as quickly as that thought appeared, I would shake my head till i get slightly dizzy. And voila! that thoughts disappeared. Hey, if u noe me well, u'd noe that I'm a scaredy cat. I even got scared of myself when I acted as a ghost in the last camp's "haunted house".

So yea. I feel proud of myself. I think i'm gonna treat myself to a Bakerzin warm choc cake =D

Slow Dance

2006-08-27T00:44:00.000+08:00

My friend sent me a poem. It was written by a terminally-ill child. I think it's a really beautiful poem. When I read it, it kinda hit me. I'm almost always rushing, more often than not cuz i'm a last-minute person. And I almost always fall asleep taking note of the hundred and one chores that I need to do the next day. I guess sometimes we can't help it. We're living the fast-paced live. The poem also reminds me of the book I read recently - "The Domestic Goddess" by Sophie Kinsella, where the protagonist is a high-flyer, earning big bucks but working 24/7. Consequentially, she is missing a lot in live.

Well, just read on, muse over it. Me too sleepy to write anything sensible now. Time for me to take time-out :)

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask, "How are you?"
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,"Hi"
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

2006-08-26T23:48:00.000+08:00

Today was quite a fun Sabbath, compared to other Sabbaths. We had a "worship in music". In the afternoon, different choir gps got to present their songs and then got commented by Doctor Dennison. Our youth grp was the least prepared one. And even after listening to the Dunman kids choir gp, we knew we were screwed. Haha...

Ok lah, in the end we didn't screw up. And it was actually really funny (tho kinda embarrasing) getting 'corrected' in front of the whole conggregation. And it was more fun to see him fix other gps - shuffle people here and there, make them do stuff (like putting fingers on their mouth to make them open up their mouths) etc. But that Dennison man has seriously earned his doctorate in music. He can improve all d gps' singing in like wat, 10 mins? If only we had him longer, bet we all can sing like angels. I'm not exaggerating. If he can make Shannon sing (as in really sing to the tune), then yea... U get what I mean. Lolx... Btw, Shan u CAN sing. So don't quit ok! ;)

Oh, and to BRATz who aren't in the choir yet - join us!!

I Found Another Me!

2006-08-23T21:00:00.000+08:00

Or rather, she found me.

I was just browsing my Friendster account when I checked out my "who's viewed me" box; one of the names was Caressa. I thought it was my own account. But strange, i thought, the FS can't possibly have recorded my own account under "who's viewed me", can it? Besides, the display pic was also unfamiliar. Then I realised that it belongs to a girl called Caressa. Oh, and she's not far away. She's in S'pore. Lolx....

Some of u might think that finding another person with the same name as yourself is no big deal, especially if u are a John, an Andrew, a Michelle or a Jane. But for me, it was quite a surprise. In my 20 yrs of living, the only time i came across my own name was in a supermarket. It was d brand of some toilet rolls. So I re-checked the pics. Yep, the girl lookin back at me wasn't myself.

I remember when I was very much younger, I was quite pissed at my parents. Pissed at them for giving me a name that nobody has. Thought that my name was quite strange. Didn't sound nice either. I thought Jade or Charlotte sounded nicer. But as I got older, I grew to like my name. It's unique and not pasaran (common). One-of-a-kind.

Well, I guess the name is no longer one-of-a-kind. But still unique, i feel.

"Hi, my name's Caressa"
"Oh hello there, Caressa"

Haha... it'll be pretty amusing to meet in person with someone with the same name as mine.

There She Goes....

2006-08-20T21:46:00.000+08:00

My sis, that is. She left this afternoon. To Thailand for her further studies. Surprisingly i didn't really feel anything. I wasn't happy, neither was i sad; ppl kept saying that i would be shouting for joy. I guess it's no secret that she and I are like er... cat and dog, or oil and fire, whatever. Haha...One thing I'm missing is ~~bossing~~ ~~ordering her ard~~ getting her assistance. So I'm left with my dad at home as my mom n bro are accompanying her. Normally when my mom's not ard, she'd be d one who help me with the chores (tho she'd be doing it reluctantly). Now i haf to do them all by myself. And if u noe me well, u'd noe that my dad n I aren't exactly best friends. Let's just say he's not exactly the easiest person to live with. So now i'm left alone with him.....sigh.... Oh yea, and now there are less clothes to wear.

Another thing i'm sighing abt is that tmr the new semester starts. What a bummer! Actually a wk ago i felt like I was so ready for school. After having 3.5 mths hols, thot i'd be ready to get hectic again. But now, I wish I have a little bit more hols. a wk more maybe. I mean, now it's just me n my dad home. Once he's gone for work, I'd have the whole house to myself. I can sleep, eat, watch tv, surf d net, get lazy all I want. LOLx. Shucks. I'm not so lucky. Sighhhh......

But maybe it's time i get busy. Dang, during d hols I've become fatter. Yucks. And this aft when the others n I went for d annual SYAS' (my almamater) Jumble Sale, we went to do this brief check up. Just to check our BMI, body fat n stuff. And yea, according to them *surprise susprise* I need to lose some body fat. But d funny thing is, I can still gain body weight. Ha! Whatever.

Oh well, guess i should start tidying up my room a bit. Get things in place. Get ~~ready~~ psyched up for school. Must. Start. With. A. Positive. Mind. *rolls eyes*

2006-08-13T21:37:00.000+08:00

Gonna go camping tmr. Heh, not really excited abt it, especially after all the bad report ppl have been giving. Moreover, it's only 1 wk left before school starts. I can back out now as it's not compulsory for me, and i've already completed my CIP requirement (which is d only perk they offer) And spend the 3 days instead, bumming ard at home, or do some more shopping. But i choose to go still. I must be crazy.

I'm going in the hope i can have some fun, peace and joy. That's all. Oh, or maybe see a cute guy or two. Hehe...

One thing i really hope they'd provide us with is GOOD FOOD! yea. i can't emphasise tt more. The last camp had such miserably-cheapskate-with-no-nutritional-value food that I, a non-picky eater, had lost my appetite at the sight of it. And to think we paid big money for it. Since this time we've signed up as helpers, not a deserving-to-be tortured freshies, hopefully they'll be more generous with us.

Saa, gotta do my last minute packing now. Oyasumi..

A Lovely Night

2006-08-10T23:20:00.000+08:00

The five of us met up last nite to watch d fireworks during the NDP. It's our tradition, which started in JC, that we go watch the fireworks every year. This year is our third year of living the tradition. It didn't matter that we could only watch the Air Force show and the fireworks display. What mattered most was our companionship and catching up with each other lives. Too bad Isk was missing this year. The stupid army required him to help out with the NDP. But he get to watch everything that was going inside the stadium. That lucky *toot*.

To be honest, the fireworks display was a bit dissapointing. The newspaper made a such a hoo-ha abt this year's NDP. Apparently, since this year is the last time that NDP was to be staged in the National Stadium, the show was promised to be sth that should not be missed. Naturally, I expected a bigger and better fireworks display. Alas, a bigger and better fireworks display we were denied. We agreed that last year's was better. More colorful and more interesting. It's got different shapes - hearts, stars, even smiley faces (altho vicky complained tt d faces were all crooked. Hehe....)

HoweverI shouldn't complain. It was quite a stunning show, still. My all-time faves are the gold-dust and gold-rain ones. Especially during the gold-rain fireworks; it really felt as if the stars were falling on us. The sky over the stadium was lit up. Our 1.5 hrs wait for that 5 mins worth of amazement was paid off....well, sorta. I had wanted to take a pic à la "Meteor Garden". Too bad the idea came too late. Heez...

Neways, after the fireworks watching, we went to Bugis to do some girl talk and shopping. Before we headed home, we made the same promise as the one we had made a year ago. See you at next year's NDP, guys!

Oh btw, had wanted to post pics, but no thanks to my irksome sis, I managed to take only 1 nice fireworks pic and some other random pics before the battery went dead. Grrr.... So gotta wait till Yilin send me d pics. Oh, I managed to get this nice pic of the sky before it went dark. And the moon was particularly big that nite, tho can't really see fr d pic.

Lovely Fireworks

The gold-dust. One of my faves :)

Put Up Ur Flag, Ppl.

2006-08-08T07:42:00.000+08:00

As I was walking home, I happened to look up and noticed a flag hanging down my sis' room. I checked if I was looking at the correct floor. Yep. That was my sis' room that I was looking at.

So I asked mom if she had hung a flag from our flat, and she confirmed it. I guess mom's feeling patriotic. Or should I say un-patriotic. U see, we're Indonesians, and the flag that she'd hung is a Singapore flag. When I asked her why she'd hung that flag, she just said, "Oh well, the Government give us free flag to display, then must display lah. Besides, it's so sad to see so few people hang them. These ppl ar. Give free already, still dun want to display."

Singapore's national day is this Wednesday, but still I see only a handful of people hang their flags. Quite sad really. Back home, Independence Day (which is equivalent to National Day, of course) is really a celebration. People look forward to it. Every household put up their flags with pride. Lots of activites are held in the neighbourhood where young and old can have a good time while commemorating the words-can't-describe hardwork that our patriots had done to achieve the freedom that we now enjoy. There's no need for fancy fireworks display to get everyone excited. Man, I miss those typical "17-agustus" games. Cracker eating competition, panjat pinang (where ppl climb a palm tree to get the gifts on top), races, etc. It's been a long time...

Well, I guess the fact that we're now PR and that we've called Singapore home for over 7 years made my mom feel that we should be more patriotic towards S'pore. *shrugs* Neways from far, S'pore flag looks like Indo's flag. It doesn't really matter.

Oh btw, does anyone realise that the National Day Parade (NDP) TV advert is using the same music as the movie "V for Vendetta"? (called overture sth, if i'm not wrong) It's during the scene where V was bombing the whole town and the music was playing in the background.

In the movie, V bombed the town to show his resentment towards the govt. And the bombings look like fireworks. Now, they are using it as a background music for the NDP's advert where they show the extravagant fireworks display. Can you see the irony?

Hmmm, I'm really not sure if the govt is aware of tt. Haha...Whatever.

A Good Time, We Had

2006-07-31T22:20:00.000+08:00

After a long time planning, we finally had our BRATz outing last Saturday. Tho we ended up in Mt Faber instead of Sentosa, we still had a really fun time - makin ppl do stuff (for us :P), running, racing, memorizing bible verses, solving puzzles, getting rides from strangers and eating peanuts while enjoying the breeze and the view (tho not so panaromic). Even the skeptics had fun, too =D

Some of us were worried tho, at first. Before we set off, we could see the ominous dark clouds in the distance, threatening to ruin our long-overdue outing. True enough, a while later it started to drizzle. So we prayed that God would give us good weather so we could have a good time. Praised God. When we arrived, the rain stopped completely. Instead of rain, He gave us a cloudy sky so we won't get scorched. Breeze was continuous. That wasn't the first time that God stopped the rain for us. When we were in Sarawak, He did the same thing. What happened was, we had our laundry being dried when we felt drizzle. We were still at the worksite, which is about 5 mins walk from the house. We all got kanchiong to save our clothes from the rain.

But Karen just walk and said calmly, "Don't worry. I prayed already."

Still, that didn't stop us from rushing. Amazingly, there was only occasional drops of rain when we were getting our clothes but when Sheena (the last person) got into the house with all her clothes, it started pouring heavily. It seemed that God had put a huge basin to temporarily hold the water, long enough for us, and when we were done, He just poured everything down. It happened again yesterday morning. When I stepped out of the MRT station, it was raining so heavily. I was worried cuz I didn't bring my brollie and I was already late for work. But within 3 mins, the downpour receded to a drizzle. I didn't even pray for the rain to stop. He knew. God is good.....

Here are the pics that we took. Oh i did mentioned one of the things some of us did was to get rides from strangers, didn't I? Yep, the ever-so-onz Auntie Agnes did hitch-hike during the race. Twice. One was a Benz and the other was a truck, so I was told. Her excuse - she was too old to be running ard.... LOLx.... The other teams complained that she was cheating. But she said that she wasn't cheating, she was juz being smart. And there was no rule against it. Gotta agree with her =D

For more, go to my Flickr. (Not all are up tho. Will complete tmr)

Can u guess the winner?

*Hint: it's the team with the oldest and the youngest person

Go Ninja GO!!

We enjoy the ride up....

While they had to walk UP. Haha!

The aftermath

7 Foods to NEVER Eat!

2006-07-21T19:50:00.000+08:00

7 foods to NEVER eat.

Oh boy, the moment I saw the title of this article, I know I'll be guilty and I know... I won't heed the 'NEVER' advice. (I can almost picture Yilin nodding her head in agreement) Still, i'll try to avoid and control the desire of this weak flesh of mine. So here's the list (go read the article for the 'horrifying' truth unfolding right before your eyes):

Doughnuts
Cheeseburger with Fries
Fried Chicken and Chicken Nuggets
Oscar Mayer Lunchables
Sugary Cereal
Processed Meats
Canned Soup

I must say most of these foods are really my comfort food, or used to at least. And some of them even have special place in my heart. Serious....

Doughnuts - sure brings back good ol' memories. Used to go to this small household bakery that's like right in front of my small but homey n fun primary school. Just a few steps away. The bakery owner was such a nice lady. I'd play at her house and eat her donuts almost everyday with my friends. My fav - the sugar-coated one. I could remember licking the snowy sugar and then eat the fluffy, warm, fresh-from-the-oven donuts. Yumm.... She'd give me free donuts once in a while. It's been quite some time since I had one.

Cheeseburger with fries - Man, must they specifically mention cheeseburgers? They're one of my fav childhood food. Who wouldn't love this age-old favourite? I had celebrated so many of my birthdays in McD's. And during O levels period, McD's was like my second home and the "crispy on the outside, soft in the inside" french fries had satisfied my snacks cravings.

Fried chicken and chicken nuggets - I don't eat as much fried chicken as I used to, and I definitely don't eat the skin anymore (but I missed it. It's so delicious and crispy. Sigh....). But my fridge is never out of chicken nuggets. It's tasty, filling and convenient. Double sighs....

Sugary cereals - Honey star, Koko Krunch, Froot Loops, Chocolate-coated Corn Flakes are what I used eat. I've since changed to healthier choice, ie Muesli mix and other Multi-grain + fruit bits cereals. I like them. But I must admit that it's more tiring to chew them. And not so fun to eat. Not crunchy (that's why sometimes I mix them with the 'sugary cereals'). My mom often jokes that my breakfast look like my hamster's food. Oh well, they do have a couple of similar ingredients.

Processed meats - Oh man. I think the author hates me. She lists down all my fav food. Ha! Sausages (again, tasty n convenient. Oooh I love the cheese sausage. So yummy!), bacon and ham (chicken or turkey version of course). Oh btw, she didn't mention chicken bakwa (chinese barbequed meat), did she? Haha... I can still eat them *trying to ignore the fact tt it's under processed meat category*

Humph... I hate the author! No, just kidding. She's right. Blame my parents for letting me grow up eating such unhealthy, but oh-so-delightful food. They let me buy sugar donuts, they showered me with sweets n chocs (u shud see my teeth last time. one word: Yuck!). They brought me to McD's to celebrate my birthdays. And till now, they still stock up on nuggets, and other processed meats. Goodness, just a couple of days ago, we even had fried chicken nuggets and french fries for breakfst (I didn't like it tho. Too greasy.)

However, I'm trying to live more healthily. I eat more wholemeal products. More greens. More fruits. Less sugar, less salt, less oil. Sheesh, I sound like the Health Promotion Board campaign poster. I don't mind tho. I quite like healthy food. In fact, I hate it if my food is too salty or too greasy. Once in a while I'd give in to temptation, I admit. But as long as I eat in moderation, I should get by just fine :)

2006-07-19T21:25:00.000+08:00

Just read the article that Mr Brown wrote in TODAY: "S'poreans are fed, up with progress!" a couple of days ago after the hoo-ha.I've always enjoyed reading his column. Witty and funny. But have missed the last few, cuz too busy. Sigh... what to do. In s'pore muz work hard. or else, cannot make it lah.

I agree with what he said. and boy, i'm not alone. if u see the comments he got concerning the article, i must say he's quite a star. Lolx.

As he's pointed out (albeit sarcastically) life is definitely getting tougher, especially for non-citizens (huh, and they still complain tt govt is treating them as second-class citizens??) Though we're already PRs, we don't get as much benefits and we definitely didn't get the Progress Package thing. Yet, we have to contribute as much tax and we're expected to work harder, or risk losing our jobs (thank goodness, I'm not joining the workforce as perm anytime soon) Moreoever, I'm gonna have to work here for 3 years after graduating. Sigh...If only I had enough money I'd have flown straight to OZ at this very moment. Singapore so boring! (oops...)

Now, my mom is also complaining abt the price hike. "Girl ah, off the light when ur not using it. Electricity price rise some more. Oh, don't shower too long also.Don't waste water. Aiyo, didn't I said not to turn off when not in use. Why is the TV on when no one's watching? Aiyo! Don't waste money." Thank God, the weather has been somewhat forgiving. Not as warm as last year. So no need to use the air-con everyday. (Save my skin from drying up, too :o) But my mom's complaining cuz now she has to use the dryer or the clothes won't dry.

And seriously, are we all ready for this iN2015? I noe we've become really tech-savvy. Just read yesterday about schools going really high-tech. (what! no more textbooks? Poor eyes. They've regard u less n less now. And do those schools realise the problems that would inevitably arise from being too high-tech?) Ok, maybe I'm biased, skeptical whatever. Sometimes I find technology too much of a bummer. Besides, it's been proven time and again that technology isn't all that marvelous. But I'm not gonna start an argumentative essay to defend my opinion. Done that for GP. Now's time for ranting. Hehe...

But most importantly, I hate the govt for creating such a horrible terrijible vegetable education system. But I'm not gonna write on tt. It'll take me ages to finish ranting abt it. Let's juz say that the system has almost turned me into an IMH citizen.

Still, I don't want to be ungrateful. Coming from indo, I must say that there are better things here. like I can go home late alone on public transpot, without much worry. but in jakarta, i don't even dare take taxi at daytime. and it's relatively clean here. and there are no extremely poor people in sight (you would really feel lyk closing ur eyes all the time on the road in jkt cuz there are juz sooo many really poor ppl begging for their lives). Oh, and as I've said in my past blog, I'm really grateful for the libraries here.

So there, I've managed writing a blog without dissing the "gahmen" (not tt I care abt those "white" people. I'm juz keeping my resolution, ie. to "give thanks in all circumstances"). Lolx... I'm in ok mood. Not in i'll-complain-as-much-as-i-want-and-there's-nothing-u-can-do-abt-it mood.

One last advice tho, for the "gahmen" and everyone else. The more you try to cover up sth or blatantly opposing it, especially if that sth is controversial (think the Da Vinci Code), you'll only cause more people to support it. Doesn't take an Einstein to know that, dude.

Twisted Logic

2006-07-12T21:00:00.000+08:00

Twisted Logic...

And here's the video. Had wanted to show u the other video which is longer. but Youtube is juz too slow in uploading. Sigh.... Oh btw, the vid and the sound is not exactly in-synch. haha...I dunoo what happened.

I'm thankful I can watch Coldplay LIVE for free!

2006-07-11T22:56:00.000+08:00

Before I say anything, I must thank Anthony for giving me free tix to Coldplay concert held yesterday. Yep, u read it right. I went to the concert yesterday =D

Used to like Coldplay lots last time, then singers/bands come and go. New favourites replace the old ones. Over the months, my liking for Coldplay has waned. Then on Saturday, I noticed some tix on Andy (hehe, I got good eyes) and that was how i got it. I thought, "Well, free tix, man. Very kiasu mah. If free, then must take." Haha... But really, I used to like them a lot. So i thought why not.

The concert started 1 hr late. Damn, I was kinda sleepy already. Not to mention starving. Gazel said there was some foodcourt near d stadium so we could eat our dinner there. Turned out, there's only 1 pathetically small 7-11. I was pretty pissed. Then at 8.45pm, the lights were dimmed. Ppl started screaming and clapping. (btw, i realised the effect of light on ppl. Just dim it, and ppl would get very excited. Play some cool lights, ppl go hysterical. There's power in the light!)

But, not until 9pm that the band came out. Pretty cool entrance. There was countdown in the background, and they started singing Twisted Logic (i think. can't remember). Of course they sang all my favourites - clocks, speed of sound, yellow and fix you. They're an awesome band. How can I tell? My bro always said that you can tell if a band is good when they perform live. Chris Martin's voice is ever so fantastic, the band was zero cool. No lip-synching. They sounded better live. Unlike some bands/singer, like Hoobastank or Ashlee who sound dreadful live. Moreover, the play with the lighting was superb. Totally set the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, the crowd sux. So many of them are like balding old man or those older working ppl. Totally not onz. Just stood or sit there, looking uninterested. I'm quite sure they all got free tix or maybe cuz it was Monday. I felt sorry for the band. I could see they put lotsa effort in makin d concert a success. Only towards the end that the crowds went wild.

Oh u noe what? I almost touched Chris Martin! Only a few inches away. Man, I didn't realise that he was coming down d stage. Sigh. That was one chance in a lifetime wasted. My bro was luckier. He get to go really near d stage. My seat was pretty good. But he was like right in front, tho he had to pay for it. Heh...

So yea, that's what I'm thankful for this week =D=D

Here's some pics. I'll upload the rest on my Flickr. I'm gonna upload the concert vid tmr. Uploading on youtube takes forever :s

The Beginning

Coldplay ROX!

This pic looks like it's part of Motorola Advertising campaign, isn't it? Haha... Maybe I can sell this to the company ;)

When I grow up, I wanna be...?

2006-07-06T23:47:00.000+08:00

Went to the briefing for the Commencement tmr, where I'm sposed to be ushering. So Mr Chui, Xm and I were there for the briefing. We went to this lecture-theater-looking hall, assigned for the BAcc students ceremony. After a short briefing, Xm went up the stage and stood in front of the mic.

When I asked him what he was doing, he said confidently, "To practise for my valedictory speech, of course!"

Woah, to think we just finish our first year of study in U. That means we still have 3 more years to go (2.5 years for him). Yet, he was already preparing to deliver the valedictory speech. We even joked about our plan for the future. So we were saying that in 3 yrs time, he'll be up on the stage delivering the speech; in 5/10 yrs' time, he'll be on the "hot seat" (ie. the prof's seat); and in 20 yrs' time to be opening/closing the ceremony (u shud haf attended the convocation '05 to understand the joke), and in 30+ yrs' time, he'll be the Prof Emeritus (the next Prof G, Lolx) Dude, can't believe he's planning to spend his entire life in tt Muggers' Uni. (mind you, he kept going up to 'practise' his speech)

When I kept laughing, he said nonchalantly, "Hey, it's good to dream what."

Frankly speaking, people like him amaze me. They know exactly what they wanna do with their lives. They have goals. They dare to dream. But me... Till now, i still don't have the fuzziest idea as to what I wanna do with my life. Ever since I was young, i'm clueless about my life.

Do you remember how often the adults would ask you when you were little what you wanna be when u grow up? The most popular answers would be doctor or pilot or astronaut or policeman. So when they asked me, I would answer, accompanied by my wide, toothless smile (i had too much candy), "Of course, a doctor!"

Truth be told, I had no interest in being a doctor, whatsoever. That was what everybody said. I just followed. Besides, I had no idea what I wanted to be. Then in Secondary school and Junior College, the teachers would ask us on the first day of school what was our expected grade for O and A levels, respectively. Usually I would pretend to be going to the restroom or to write the expected grade. And when the teacher came over, I'd just grinned and told him/her that it was a secret. Truth is, I didn't know what to expect of myself. So I've never set any goals for myself.

Of course I dare to dream also. Every single night, mind you :p.... But just as my dreams change every night , my life dreams keep changing too (and I don't usually bother working towards them). Depends on what was the most recent show i watched or book i read or even stories i heard. After watching Mightly Ducks, i thought being a hockey player would be great. Then I watch The School of Rock and thought that maybe being a drummer would be über cool. But after reading this book abt a missionary's life, i thought that being a missionary would be the ultimate. Then I went to this Science lab and thought that being a scientist and inventing some really useful drugs would be better. *shrugs*

I really envy people who have goals in their lives or dreams that they're goin to achieve. I wish I had one too. One that I badly wanna achieve. One that I would strive towards, no matter what the price is. I hope God would show me...soon.

Btw, I'm currently reading this book titled "Rumi's Daughter". One of the characters, Ahmed, also felt that his life is meaningless and empty. One day, he heard the Maulana's (Muslim religious teacher) sermon. He felt that it was his calling. Since that day, he decided to live simply and in solitude, in the wild or mountains. Hmm, maybe I should do that - live life simply and be a hermit. Erm, the best place I can get in S'pore would either be Bukit Timah or Mt Faber. Ha, yeah right!

Dong Bang Shin Gi

2006-06-30T17:59:00.000+08:00

This past week has turned me into DBSG fan. No thanks to my sister. Cuz of her, I've been ~~wasting~~ spending my time in searching thru youtubes for their videos (MV/drama/clips). Frankly speaking, I was never a K-pop or J-pop, Mandapop or any asian band fan. Dun really like them. Too sissy and the way they dress is quite weird. Juz not my cup of tea. I'm much more into Western music. But once in a while I've found some exceptionally good ones. Like Utada Hikaru (I like 2 of her songs, or in this case DBSG (or DBSK/TVXQ/Tohoshinki watever, they've got many names, depending whether ur a korean, chi or jap fan). Though usually I like only 1 or 2 songs from a particular Asian singer/band, this band is quite interesting.

Been watching lots of their MVs or juz clips in youtube, and I found them quite adorable. Apparently they've been ard for quite sometime. I've actually read them in the Teens mag, sometime ago. But didn't give it a hoot. As I've said, not really into Asian songs. Most of the songs by this band are quite typical. But altho they're a boyband, they can actually sing and definitely dance. Dun really like the ballads, but some of the songs are really nice, like this song titled "Rising Sun" or the one titled "HiYaYa" (links provided).

There is something really addictive with the song Rising Sun. Didn't really like it at first. But now i'm totally hooked. I dunno what genre it is, but it's a full-of-energy kinda song. Everytime I hear it, made me wanna get up and dance (tho regretfully, i can't dance). And the boys really look cool dancing in tt video. Whereas the song HiYaYA has a very catchy tune. A summer, refreshing kinda pop song. Watching the MV made me wanna go straight down to the beach. Especially in this really hot and humid summer weather.

Oh talkin abt goin down to the beach, there's this seminar by our church. And on sunday it's gonna be held in Sentosa. YaY, Beach! Can't wait to soak my feet in the cool seawater =)

Well I've provided the link but I'll just put the video here. Enjoy!

Rising Sun

HiYaYa

Oh btw, thanks to doubleH for helping me put up d video. I'm such a tech idiot. Sigh...

Oh really??

2006-06-29T00:14:00.000+08:00

You Are 34% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.
In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

Hmm, i'm actually not that evil. thank goodness... but still, im "the most dangerous kind of evil". funny. i do have an evil twin bro. and some idiot did say that i had let the devil/Satan to reside in me (that was looong time ago, n it really upset me because he meant it when he said it).

I dunno if i were more evil then. But yea, there are times that I'm just so bitter and skeptic with life. there are oh-so-many times when I feel that God has left me. that feel like crying for no apparent reason. and then i get provoked real easily over some really trivial things. and i feel like hating everyone. I still feel jaded with life. If u ask me, i didn't mind to just suddenly drop dead. I still do. I'm young, but i'm already exhausted.

However, yesterday while I was having my supposedly daily bible reading, I came across this verse:

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Frankly speaking, I haven't been a good Christian and am still not. I want to be good, but boy, is it hard. And that verse really struck me. I've heard them recited so many times. But when I read it myself, i felt so ashamed of myself. I'm always complaining, never satisfied; and more often than not, think that everyone is out to get me. Though I get excited or happy very easily, they are just fleeting kind of feeling. And I get upset, really upset, just as easily, especially under stressful situation.

It's not easy to see that there's always silver lining on every cloud (do i get the idiom correct? >.<) But I do want to be joyful always and to give thanks in all circumstances. I pray that God help me. Been trying, and I know I can't do it by myself.

So from today onwards, I shall list things that I shud be thankful of. Not necessarily everyday, but at least once a week.

Yep, so I've been fired. er...ok not tt bad. But i was sposed to work till 30 June, but yest they called me to say that I don't have to come anymore. That's 3 day's worth of salary less. sigh... cuz i was sick on Fri, remember. They are so stupid to call only after I went home. so i have to go to the agency today to submit my timesheet. Unnecessary travelling expense >.<

But yea, the good thing abt it is at least I get to go out with my mom today to this Thai festival at Thailand embassy. I love Thai food! Love the mango papaya salad. Hot, spicy, sweet, sour and salty taste in every bite. Yummm! Really tantalise my taste buds. Oh, and they sell my fav durian chips too :D But honestly, besides the food the fest is quite boring.

Oh btw, while I was writing this post, I realised that the song "Hakuna Matata" was playing on my iTunes. Coincidence?

Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase

Hakuna Matata, ain't no passing craze

It means no worries for the rest of your days

It's a problem-free philosophy

Hakuna Matata!

Click It!

2006-06-24T21:54:00.000+08:00

This is for real. Juz click on the banner and sign up k. hehe....extra cash leh.

TGIF

2006-06-23T13:25:00.000+08:00

Been working the whole week and thus been missing watching anime on youtube. Whoever invented youtube, Bless his soul. Used to buy or borrow animes and boy, are they expensive. It doesn't help that my ever-so-generous anime supplier cum freak cum friend, Pisal had moved to Aussie. So no more free animes. Then.....came along youtube. Really grateful for it's very existance. Haha...I'm being long-winded. But so what. I got a free Friday. haha!

I'm still working but well, it's the time of the month. Sigh...ever since I was a kid, I've always wanted to be a boy. I mean, they're just so lucky. Girls, I'm sure u noe what i mean. And I've no idea why recently the cramps have gotten worse. By golly, I'd almost fainted on the MRT this morning. Suddenly I felt so light-headed and everything became so blurry. I bet I was like really pale. But no one bothered to give up their seat. Sheesh...Gracious S'porean? Tang Ku Ku (wait long long)

So i decided to stay home. The pain was just too much. I was stuck in the bust stop in front of J8. Couldn't walk home. Couldn't even walk across the street to the bus stop. And I waited too long for the taxi. Stupid rush hour. So I mustered up all my strength and start walkin home. I really wish I'd been born as a boy. Lolx (btw, i'm still a perfectly normal girl yah!)

Oh yea. My sis was pretty nice today. Lolx... Never guessed i'd ever say that. My relationship with that imp is like oil and fire. When we get together, there'll surely be an inferno. Ok, not always that bad. But there'll be at least sparks. But neways, this morning and on some other rare occasions, she was well, nice. Called home to get my mom to fetch me. But she was out. So I told her that I got terrible cramps. And voila, when I got home, even before I asked her, she already prepared hot water for me. Aww, sweet. hee.... But then again, that's very rare. Get this, her attitude still irks me. That's why most of the time, we just bicker. Ahhh, sweet sisterly love (*puke*)

So yea, now I've got a long weekend. Yay... Thot I could start watchin my animes again or some random funny videos. But alas, the youtube is under maintenance. Of all the days! Sigh. Maybe i should catch some sleep.

Sing Your Heart Out

2006-06-19T23:43:00.000+08:00

BRC Youth Choir

Another picture! Haha...I realise I've been bombarding my entries with pics. I can't help it. I've always enjoyed taking pics (not of myself of course) and a picture is worth a thousand words. Besides, I got a new camera - Ixus 60, which I got abt 2 wks ago. Not exactly what I wanted. Well, I still can't afford a Canon Rebel or Nikon D70s or any good digital SLRs, not forgetting their expensive accessories. I'll buy them when I've started my career (*hint* or earlier if some1 would like to finance me *hint*). As a student, there are too many things that I have to buy/pay for and that I covet. For now, my Ixus is enough to keep me happy, tho not ecstatic. I should be grateful.

On saturday we had our very first Balestier Rd SDA Church Youth Choir (refer to pic, for more here). Never in my 7 years worshipping in tt church tt we had a youth choir. But there we were, in front of the whole church, singing "All night, All day". The choir was formed only 2 mths ago, and we didnt exactly practise really hard. But I did give my best, and so did everyone i believe, though i was darned nervous and my lips was quivering. I've always had stage fright. But anyways, everyone said we sang wonderfully and they commended us. Well, they couldn't exactly tell us that we sang like chickens going to slaughterhouse, could they?

But honestly, we did sing ok. May not be like those catholic boys choir, but at least we didn't agonise our dear churchgoers, I hope and I pray.

Well, today's my second day at work and I'm already so bored to death. My job is to call people and verify the info that the company already had. Seconds after seconds, minutes after minutes, hours after hours, I hear the ringing sound, and operator voice. Luckily, so far no rude contacts. Just that many of those companies have "The Entertainer" as their hold-the-line tune. Goodness gracious me, before I started working there, I thoroughly enjoy that piece and it was one of my favourites. But after countless time listening to it in that high-pitch tune, I changed my mind. The Entertainer's no longer that entertaining now. Yea, working is boring but I need the money, so I shall endure. Gambatte!!

I miss watching my favourite animes all day long :((

Happy Family =)

2006-06-17T10:06:00.000+08:00

Finally! We get to meet up after a looong while. What can we do, we're all busy ppl....

We're one HAPPY family =)

The original BoBby's AngElz ;)

Butterfly!

2006-06-16T11:08:00.000+08:00

Went out with my JC cliqués on Tuesday, the Bobby's angelz and the husband and extra :p We were one big family, and still are. We've got the husband, the wife, the mistress, the daughter, the aunties and the flirty extra. Heez.... Still waiting for Yilin to send me the pics we took.

On the way to sending me home in Shakti's car, Yilin asked this, "Why did the uncle throw the butter out of the window?"

The answer, "Cuz he wants to see butter-fly!" (^^")

Speaking of butterfly, I managed to get this really nice shot of a butterfly. Took it before going to the blood donation drive last Sunday. It was after the rain. So the water droplets make the pic look nicer. Was actually shooting the flowers and almost missed the butterfly cuz it was quite small.

Blood Donation Drive

2006-06-14T13:09:00.000+08:00

Our church held a blood donation drive on sunday. By far, it was the most fun blood donation I've ever done. That's probably cuz there were quite a no. of BRATz who went for the blood donation. Unexpected tho. I thot only Sheena and I would be donating, since we've donated before, and the guys said that they were "scared of needles" when we ask them to join. Pathetic. Well, I must say that peer pressure can be a useful thing. We managed to get 6 others to donate. It's quite a pity that some of them were rejected cuz they were not fit enough to donate. Anyways, after donating we had fun taking pictures and showing off the cute bandages (really silly, actually). We made so much noise that the nurse reprimanded us. Lolx. It was really fun.

Next time, should get more BRATz to join in. After all, donating your blood means u'll be saving someone's live. Besides, it's not painful at all :D

Here are some of the pics. For more, click here. Btw, I had fun takin the blood samples pics. They are fascinating, I think :p

Who's got nicer bandage?
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Life savers power up!
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Alden
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Interesting, eh?
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

It Came After All

2006-06-09T14:36:00.000+08:00

7/6/06

A.M.

I guess the cursed day came a day too late for me. I was juz writing that June 6, '06 isn't in auspicious at all. Alas, it came a day late for me. So ironic. I even recalled thinking that after 6 is 7, which is my fav no. It's also the perfect no. So after a supposedly bad day, will come a great day. Sigh....

I knew the day will come soon. He's quite old after all. But, I was just taking his pics with my new digicam 2 days before and was feeding him carrot bits the day before. He looked as hyper as ever. The day definitely came unexpectedly. It was Wednesday morning that I posted his pics on my friendster - the pics tt I took 2 days earlier. I was just admiring how cute he look. I noticed tho that his fur had greyed. But still kawaii! Then I went to change his food bowl. Usually the moment I opened his cage, esp to feed him, he would go scurrying out of his crib with his tiny nose twitching and smelling my hand.

However, that morning there was no movement. Thot he was just being really lazy (Oh well, usu he would just eat, sleep and mess up the cage. He hardly used his wheel to exercise, only used it as another sleeping place ^^") I started making some noise to wake him up. But there was still no movement. Weird....So i opened the top compartment to take a peek. I was scared that he had escaped. (He went missing 3x before, mind you. Tt smart fella.) But I saw him there under the 'stairs' as always, 'sleeping' peacefully. I made even more noise. But he didn't move an inch. I start to get nauseous. Sth must be wrong. I sniffed at the cage. But there was no smell. If he had ...died.... there would be some smell right? Then I took a pen. I nudged him lightly and was mortified when his body was so stiff. I nudged again, harder. This time my body went stiff.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. He looked like he was just sleeping. So peaceful....However, my dear Bacon had left this world. I was really scared. Didn't dare to touch him. Couldn't believe he would go so unexpectedly quick.

Sayonara, Bacon. You've been a great companion. I just hope that I had been a good owner. I just hope that you had gone peacefully. I'll miss playing with you. I'll miss watching you nibble your food or bite my shorts or wreak havoc when u went missing. Sayonara...

Cursed Day??

2006-06-07T13:23:00.000+08:00

6/6/06

Revelation 13:18 - This calls for the wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.

Woah, finally reach D day where it's sposed to be a spooky day. 666 - that's the mark of the beast. Hollywood even made a movie cuz of this inauspicious date. But just because today's date reminds me, n a hell lot of other ppl, of the evil associated with the no, it doesn't mean today was a bad day. I didn't even have bad feelings, as in, u noe sometimes your body just shivered and u have a feeling that sth bad's gonna happen? Yea, I didn't experience that. Actually today wasn't a bad day at all, tho it's not a great either.

The only painful thing about today is that my whole upper body aches. But that's because I've started excercising after a loooooong break. I run once awhile (a looong while, that is). But I decided that I should do something about my accumulating ~~fats~~ lipids. Not juz because I want to make Andy shut up, but cuz I wanna feel healthier and more energised . And of course, wearing back cloathes that I used to be able to wear won't hurt either. So i resolved that I should start exercising again. Sigh, i've resolved so many times, but tho the spirit is oh-so-willing, the flesh is so darned weak. But never mind, I'll do it this time. If Ralph can do it, so can I! Yosh! (I can't lose out to my Babat rival)

Yesterday was a good start. Wanted to jog this morning, but it was raining till evening. Bad day, huh. Too bad I can't jog (*smirk*). So I just did stretching at home to relax my aching muscles. Anyways, encouraged by my muffin success, I decided to make choc chip cookies, since I still have some choc chips left from making the muffins. This time my mom helped a bit in doing the mixing. I think that darned mixer hates me. The moment I switched it on, butter and sugar started splattering about the walls and my shirt. And in my panic, I switched it to higher speed. Luckily I lifted the mixer in time to prevent further mess. But well, that's the only glitch tt happen. Everything went smoothly afterwards. And my cookies turned out great. It's the kind like the crunchy Famous Amos cookies, not the soft Subway cookies.

This time the texture's right. Really crisp. I like it tt way. I was quite surprised when the cookies enlarged by abt 1.5 times. But tt's ok. Still much better than the ones that we made to raise funds for our CSP project. Lolx..... One thing tho, they are still not as tasty as Famous Amos'. Something's missing. I wonder if it's because I use only 1 egg instead of 2. Well, if u noe how to make the cookies taste better, don't hesitate to tell me. I'll upload the pics later.

So yea, today was just like any other uneventful day.... (except for my choc chip cookies :D)

Yummy muffin!

2006-06-06T09:42:00.000+08:00

Still haven't got a job. Still bored. Heez.... So instead of juz being totally passive while watchin my fav animes on youtube, i decided to make some muffins. Hmm, i can already hear ppl snorting. Can I really bake? Duh, of course. I've been helping my mum baking cakes, brownies n cookies since forever. Yep, I was juz helping. But this time. I made all by MYSELF. No help from my mom at all. And yep, they ARE edible.

This is my first attempt at baking all by myself (oh I tried baking some stuff like potatoes for lunch. They turned out a little diff fr the pic. BUT still edible ok), so yea, the result wasn't as good as those muffins sold at Mrs Field - that would be unrealistic. But they still are yummy. I ate at least half of them ok. Nope, not because I felt responsible or because I wanted to prevent innocent ppl from getting food poisoning, but because it tasted GOOD! It's healthy, too. I substituted half of the flour with rolled oats, and I added pecans n almonds to the original recipe (see I can even improvise on my first attempt. Ha!) Oh, and I used brown sugar. I wanted to add raisins, but my sis objected to it.

I'm quite happy with the result. But somehow the texture isn't quite rite. Hmm, I should try again. Practise makes perfecto!

Here are my yummy muffins....

Yummm, drooling yet?

Oh yea, I used this small bowls to bake cuz I couldn't find the muffin tray. Oh well, still look and taste good nevertheless.

Moral of X-Men 3

2006-06-01T12:15:00.000+08:00

We were sposed to go 'touring' on monday, but as usual, my annoying sis ruined the plan, as always. She was so slow, taking her own sweet time in choosing clothes and stuff, cuz she was sposed to go to this interview with laskhi. But in the end they didnt go, n we all went to watch X-men: The Last Stand. Well, i think it was quite an entertaining show. If you like action, special effects, loud noise then this movie is for you. But if you expect a clever plot or interesting story, then i suggest you watch sth else. But like I said, it was nevertheless intertaining.

The characters have really cool moves, especially Wolverine. And, he's hot! Lolx.....Storm is awesome too. I particularly enjoyed the sound effect during the fights. Made my whole body shudder, literally. Thanks to dolby sound system (or is it THX? watever). But yea, there's no real suspense in the story. No plot. Juz normal good vs evil. And good wins. Some of the scenes also ended abruptly. They should've made the movie longer. But I can just imagine the amount of $$ needed. But i still think that that flying guy, the guy with wings should be given more screen time. Put his pic so big in the movie poster, but did nothing great. He'd be one cool character.

Oh btw, if you haven't already watched the show, I suggest you don't leave the cinema when the credits appear. Wait awhile. There's sth more, though it's juz a little bit more.

But anyways, while watching the show, sth struck me. Juz like what the actors said during interview on MTV, the movie did get me thinking... about social issues, particularly about people who are different from ourselves. Juz like the mutants are outcast or at least discriminated against just because they are 'different', we do the same thing too to others who are 'different'. Of course, different here doesn't juz refer to body, hairstyle, etc, u noe what i mean. But yea, guess i'm guilty of doing that. Like last saturday, there was this guy, who's kinda weird. The way he dressed n talk. He wore t-shirt, shorts n slippers to church. He was in his late 20s, i believe, so he should know better. So, he went up to youth room and he asked my bro lotsa qns during the intro session. And he was igonoring unc chin, which was a 'lil amusing. I noe I should've still go up to him and be friendly, but I didn't. Cuz he was 'different'. Same thing happened on the first day of my community svc project (CSP) in this spastic children society. I was a kinda scared to interact with them at first cuz you'd never know what they'd do (I did have some 'funny' experience before). But that fear dissipated after I spent more time with them. And they are quite cute actually.

Well, i realised that i will always have prejudice against people that are a ,well, different from myself. But if i spend more time with them, that prejudice might just go away and instead, replaced by compassion. Still, i need to reduce that 'more time' to 'no time at all'. After all, i might be 'different' to other people. I do have my antics, too. Well, I'll strive, and if everyone does too, i bet my life that this world will be a better place to live in. No more people with sneering, condescending eyes, no more people and their racism, sexism, whatever-ism. All that we have will be luuurrrrvveee for one another.

Can i get my "Awwww" now?

(okay, that last part was exaggerated :p)

2006-05-30T16:19:00.000+08:00

You Are 40% Girly

You are a pretty hardcore tomboy, and a very free spirit.Gender roles be dammed, you like to do things your way.

How Girly Are You?

Oh well, the 'Guys' had always regarded me as one-of-the-guys. BUT, i'm evolving. Haa....

'Touring' time!

2006-05-29T13:32:00.000+08:00

Today's church-cleaning day was pretty quiet, esp in the youth room cuz most of them are in the bible camp. U might be askin, why am i not there. Well, i was never interested in that kinda thing, unless there's a carrot for me for going. Hehe.... So yea, there was only me, my sis n calvin Q in d morning before gazel, roch n laksa come much later. Andy and Sze tuan were sposed to come, but those 2 are so lazy. Sigh...

Neways, tmr we (me, my sis, roch n laksa) are gonna act like tourist. We're gonna walk ard some tourists' spots in d central area and juz gonna take loads of pics. Oh well, this kinda things are bound to happen during hols time when we've got nothing better to do (well, doing chores isn't quite counted as 'better' things to do :P). Like 3 wks ago, me n my GFs went 'touring' round Sentosa Island. Was sposed to be suntanning, but the sun chose to take a break on tt day, so we ended up going round d island on open-top buses and even goin to the new Imbian Lookout to try the Luge. It was quite fun.

Man, i noe i should be getting a job. I'm like so broke and it's THE ever-so-awaited-for Great S'pore Sale time, for goodness sake. I wanna go shopping! but got no money!! Arrgghh... But i'm so lazy. Maybe the day after tmr i'll start finding for jobs again. Besides stayin home, watchin movies and eating snacks all the time don't do any good to my poor tummy. and thighs. and arms. Heez....

Oh well, gotta rest early today. Lotsa things to do tmr. Nitey nite.

So Bored....

2006-05-24T21:25:00.000+08:00

Oh man, hols can be darn boring if ur havin it for too long. 1 mth and 3 days of hols to be exact. So i decided to write sth, since it's been mths since my last entry. I even had forgotten my password.

Nth interesting so far, juz my bag being stolen. Well yea, 2 wks ago, when i was shopping in carrefour with my mom, 2 a**h***s stole my bag. My new gold bag somemore. And in it are my purse, IC, mobile n other stuff. Yep, tt's my 4th mobile gone in 2 yrs. What luck!! I really haf no idea why my luck is so friggin bad. I juz lost my hp last dec, n b4 tt, lost it only a couple of mths b4. Maybe Esther is right. I have a bad karma with hp. Sheesh... it's always either i lose my stuff or some1 stole it. 2X lost hp, 2X stolen. And now my whole bag for goodness sake. My blood boils everytime i think abt tt incident. I just feel lyk cursing those 2 till they die!

U might be askin, how do i noe there are 2 thieves. Well (n this is wat i told tt stupid policeman too, n y is he stupid? i'll elaborate soon) while i was in d choc section, choosin wat to buy for my frenz in indo since i were to go on tt sunday, there was this malay-looking guy. Not sure if he's malay or thai or indon or vietnamese, they look sth like tt. he kept lookin at me while holdin a choc bar. Trying to be nice, i asked him, "can i help u?" then he muttered which i took as him askin for d price. so i pointed at d price tag. but then he like kept lookin at me. then put back d choc, n went to d other end of d aisle. then his friend, with similar look, kept walkin up n down, and also looked at me. but i ignored cuz i thot they were juz chi ko pek (perverted man). Ok, since i thot they were weird, I shud've been more cautious. But d genius me, ignored them and even put my bag on d trolley. BUT, it was right beside me n i was holding onto d trolley. So i nv thot those 2 bastards would steal my lovely bag. Man, I felt so stupid.

Lesson learnt 1: Never ever leave ur stuff lying ard
Lesson learnt 2: Kindness doesn't always beget kindness
Lesson learnt 3 (I nv thot i wud really listen to this advice): Don't talk to strangers, unless it's a must.

Anyways, i went to d police station to report my loss, since my IC n EZ-link card were there. But when i told him wat happened, he juz looked at me, sneered n said, "miss is tt how u treat ur things? U shudn do tt, u noe. We can't help u, u noe." WTF! Eh, idiot, tt's ecxactly how i usu treat my things. Leave them ard so tt ppl can conveniently take them as and when they like. Duh! I was pissed enough, n realised wat a dummy i'd been. I didn't need him to lecture me. Besides, it took more than 1.5 hrs for d whole report to finish. I was there feeling upset n he still haf d time to chit chat with his collegues n did other stuff. So inefficient! Lucky for him, I was in better control of my temper on tt day. Otherwise.... Seriously, I really wonder wat happens if there were really terrorist attack. Bet they'll be too busy chatting to care. Nonsense.

Lesson learnt 4: Don't be complacent. Yes, this country is relatively safe. But crime will never be truly nonexistent. And with tt kind of law enforcers, u'd be wiser not to count on them.

CNY is coming to town!

2006-01-24T13:45:00.000+08:00

Had a long day today. After 1 seminar and 2 project meetings, I went to Chinatown with my mom. Man, I just love festive seasons. Chinese New Year is around the corner. The food, the festive goodies, the atmosphere, the people, the buzz, ... Chinatown was full of those. Got to buy preserved fruits (salty and sweet ones), other chinese food, which I don't know the name, clothes and other stuff. And the best one is Ba Kwa (barbecued pork). Wait, don't get me wrong. I'm still an Adventist, so I still don't eat pork. I just choose the chicken version. Don't know the chinese name (even my evil twin bro dunno the name either, so, can't blame me). But in the end, we didn't buy the chicken ba kwa (sounds weird, huh) cuz though it tastes so heavenly, it's also super unhealthy. High in cholesterol, sodium and other bad stuff. Hey man, it's high time that we love our body.

Then, we just walk and walk around Chinatown till my feet went sore before we went home. I was so tired, my legs were almost numb, and yet, the MRT was really packed cuz we 'chose' to go home at rush hour. Sigh...

But, good thing, when my bro came home, he brought some goodies, and guessed what he brought..... Yep, he brought ba kwa! chicken version, of course, and there was like 1 kg of it. My sweeeeet ba kwa. Haha! Well, I can always love my body through other ways. In the meantime, excuse me while I sayang my taste bud.

BRATz Act Cute Award Result!

2006-01-22T22:54:00.000+08:00

Award voting result, originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

And the Winner is.....

2006-01-22T22:28:00.000+08:00

Okay, so I've extended the deadline till Sunday according to requests. Now, the voting is officially closed. Bet y'all are EXCITED to noe who the winner is, no? Alright, I shall not dilly dally. So, the winner is

......drldlrdlrldrldrldrldlr**drum rolls**drdldrldlrdlrldrldrl.......

Yep. You've guessed it! It's our Mr Murderer himself, Daniel!!

Now, why do I have this feeling that he might have ~~threatened~~ enticed his voters... But, maybe not.

Anyways, thanks for voting people. For those who haven't got the chance to get nominated, my advise is "Start acting cute". You might just get noticed. While those who didn't win, my advice is "Try harder!" Hehe... Have a great weekday peeps! Love y'all!

B.R.A.T.z "ACT CUTE" AWARD!!

2006-01-16T17:04:00.000+08:00

Ok, as I have promised, the 'Act Cute' Award will be open on Monday. So HERE IT IS (i'm so free, eh...). The ONE award that you all have been waiting for!! I hope u are excited (^^") So anyways, below are the 10 lucky nominees. Selection was of course done by moi (with a little help here and there). LOLx. So vote now, and don't forget to make a wise decision. Oh btw, do u all realize that all the girls posed with a 'V' sign? Hmm...

How to vote? You can tag me to tell me who u choose. You can remain as anon. which u can do so by putting anon. on the tag or email me directly. But of course that won't be so fun. After all this is just a game yea. So just put ur name or nick. Voting will be open till Friday, 20/01 (depending on response, hee). Simple enough yep. So yeah, HAVE FUN!! =D

Disclaimer: This 'Award' is by no means to be offensive. It was solely done to be for your fun, enjoyement, happiness, entertainment, whatever. So if u think u don't like the pics that are put up, I can only say "Too bad!" (keke, j/k :P)

Karen

Karen
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Pris

Pris
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Daniel

Daniel
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Sheena

Sheena
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Samuel

Samuel
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Rochael

Rochael
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Calvin

Calvin
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Lakshi

Lakshi
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Clarissa

Clarissa
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Sze Tuan

Sze Tuan
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Thank you all!!!

Jia Hong
Originally uploaded by *CaReSSa*.

Missionary Trip

2006-01-16T16:35:00.000+08:00

Below are the pics taken during our missionary trip to Entayan Village in Sarawak. It was a bittersweet experience. Some suffering endured, some tears shed, some bruises and injuries sustained but lots of laughter laughed and jokes shared. Overall, it was a wonderful and unforgettable experience. I'd definitely want to experience it once more. Well, enjoy the pics.

Do check out Little Ms Happy poem 'The Kampong'. It pretty much summarizes everything.

For more pics, click here.