2 tallgirls, a hamster and a bunny

I met up with Peiyi, Ling and Brandon after not seeing them for ages! (well, theoretically ling does not count since I only met her last week at curry favour) Anyway, Peiyi and Ling are my tallest female friends (Peiyi's at 5 ft 10", and Ling's 5ft 11") and Brandon looks like a bunny with his cute front tooth, and apparently i am the hamster...Haha, funny how names given since we were in junior college at the tender age of 17 can stick with us for so long. Anyway, in between our usual conversation of growing old(er) and feeling more and more lethargic as we get old(er) we all managed to have a great time catching up by updating each other of what's been happening for the past 5 months since we've last seen each other.

We met at this shopping mall in Orchard call Wisma Atria and there's this really good food court call Food Republic that has a lovely 60's old Singapore interior with great street eats (though now they are all in an air conditioned food court and the street stalls are actually food stalls, basically the whole nostalgic feel is to capture the older generation and lure the younger folks, and i must admit, the food are really good as they are all screened by this food critic and only the best stalls with proven history of survival are 'invited' to set up operations here). I ordered Chicken Rice, and as the Dim Sum push cart was pushed besides me, I decided to get 3 baskets of dim sums to compliment my chicken rice (i guess you all know by now that I really love these Chinese tapas huh?!)






Peiyi had Ngo Hiong (meaning 5 spices, which consists of many different types of snacks one can choose to mix and match but the famous 5 spices actually refer to this long sausage like thing with pork marinated in 5 spices, then wrapped in a ultra thin bean curd skin and deep fried), and




Brandon ordered Fried Hokkien Mee (hokkien is one dialect of Chinese and mee actually refers to noodles, essentially hokkien mee is friend noodles simmered in a broth from prawns and taste very good)




Ling had OT today so she came late but luckily, I was still relatively hungry despite having finished my Chicken Rice, dim sum, and some of Peiyi's Ngo Hiong, so I decided to go buy 10 sticks of Chicken Satay (which are of Malay origins and is actually marinated meat pieced on a stick and BBQ over charcoal, after that you dip those sticks of meat into this crushed peanut sauce which can really make or break this dish) and Ling had Hong Kong noodles with Wantons (wantons are something hong kong-ish that are actually dumplings with minced pork and shrimps that are cooked in a soup broth with a plate of noodles on the side)







After feeling full, we decided to make full use of the time even though we are starting to exhibit Spanish dinner habits as dinner started at 9+ and ended at 10.30pm, we hop over a short distance in the sweltering humid outdoor along Orchard and headed toward Somerset area for more gossip talk and coffee and desserts (only for ling and i) at Coffee Club (this branch is purely outdoor and so, for the next 3 hours+ we were gossiping and sweating). I downed a iced mocha vanilla and an iced latte (crazy to drink hot drinks in an outdoor setting here!) and ling and i shared a muddy mud pie.




Sometimes, it stills amazes me that despite being 23 and turning 24 soon, the harsh reality of the years have luckily, not left any lines on our faces...yet. Haha...

Ling and Peiyi


Brandon and me (a.k.a Bunny and Hammie)


Ling was feeling so guilty about eating the mud pie! Though she's actually loving every single bite!


Love such nights where we just sit and talk; simple pleasures where we rarely get due to hectic schedules we all have. Comfort and company of friends...that's so important...

Fun in Intro to Physical Science Class and 'shopping' at vivocity!

Today's lesson I had at my Intro to Physical Science Class (clearing it as a general elective-science class) was so fun that I had to take some photos! This is the first time in the 3 years i have been at SMU that I am doing this! We have some hi-tech gadgets in the form of these remote controls shown below where we all press our answers of either a or b towards the infra-red sensor set up by this guy from IBM at the front of the class. Talk about intelligent organisations at work!




See the tiny thing above on the table that looks like a space-ship? That's the sensor that will detect our answers. So basically after asking Q, we basically do a Fastest Fingers First thingy and the results will be tabulated and shown onto the screen! By the way, apologies to the big bulky muscular tanned guy blocking...haha





The woman in the background with black blazer is the utterly boring lecturer who speaks extremely fast in her filipino accented english (today, lauren and i had great immense difficulty wondering if she said IRON or ION or IRON ION...roll eyes...and we both just kindda gave up after a while) and her hand writing is so atrociously bad, they perfectly compliment her vocals!Even she admitted to the bad handwriting when she said "I know my handwriting is bad so that's why I said it's important you guys have to pay attention and listen" Yeah, listen, and I cannot even differentiate iron from ion.

After class, I went to CBD (Central Business District) to look for my friend to pass her the Manner waffles and Mozart Chocos I got for her from Vienna (I had known Mary for more than 10 years! She was my tutor since I was 8 till 16!) It was raining so heavily today that despite the fact I was in my Birkenstocks and Shorts, my shorts were wet from the rain! And my Birks were entirely submerged when I cross some traffic junction cos it was 'flooded' at the uneven ends of the road.

Mary's hubby to be, Johnny drove us to the new mall in Singapore which opened just a few months ago while I was away in You-Rope. It is now supposedly the largest mall here topping the other few malls with more than a milion square feet of retail spaces and Vivocity apparently has some big names like the usual Zara (!), Topshop, Mango. I also spotted toys'r'Us (where we went to buy gifts for Mary's friend's kid, GAP (!finally here in Singapore!), Ted Baker(!!!) and Swarovski (reminds me of Vienna!) Seriously it just makes me wonder how many more Zara/Topshop/Mango/Diesel blah blah blah we all need! Save up your money, my fellow Singaporeans!





I was rather surprised that despite the mall's not located in prime Orchard Road area (Orchard's the primier shopping district of Singapore, kindda like 5th Ave or Bond Street or Kartnergasse) there seemed to be quite a good turnout of shoppers on a weekday!


I also saw some funny and weird toys at Toys'R'Us! There's this Oktoberfest Barbie, a mini MacDaddy's bag pack filled with all those great stiff from MacDonalds, and the last one...Behold! It's an approx 12 inch tall head figurine for little girls to play with! I mean, my heart literally jumped when i saw that. What were the toy makers thinking? That piece of mould looks so freakingly scary that it could have jumped out from some horror movie set! Look at those come-hither eyes the toy that is meant for little girls to play with has on! shudders!







We then went for dinner at this place call The Asian Kitchen (but it serves mainly Chinese and Taiwanese food) where we gorge like pigs and I had a bowl of la-mien (chinese hand-pulled noodles) with this spicy minced pork and mushroom sauce:


And we had 3 baskets of xiao long baos (little steamed minced pork dumplings) with 3 differents of stuffings! I loove the one with chives and pork! yummy (extreme right)!






Johnny had this fried rice with chicken cutlet which was good and we also ordered 3 side dishes ontop of our noodles and rice and dumplings! The deep fried tofu woith thai chilli sauce was great! The tofu was so soft and silky inside which was a stark contrast to the crunch fried exterior! The braised Chinese Kai Lan (some name of a chinese veggie which tastes so crunchy and good) with Chinese mushroom was ok. But I do loove my la mien! The sauce was not overly spicy (cos i cannot take spicy stuffs) and the generous minced pork sauce was a plus! All these food for $80 buckeroos (40 euros)

i am connected!

i am finally connected at home! after 17 days of pain and torture where i spent hours in school to utilise their wireless in the pretext of revising, i can now blog in the comfort and luxury of my home! oh gosh, i almost forgot how nice it is to have internet at home...haha...

Video.Video.Video

Rob did it! After skyping with Rob and Whit yesterday, I found out that they managed to finish doing the video which Rob couldn't save back in Vienna cos of some technical glitches. well, here it is all my friends! The great fun we all had from September till December of 2006 as exchange students in Vienna!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjD4Gh2rOyY

beer, cheesecake and milk

It's Saturday, 4.27 pm, I am in school after caoming back for an additional class for Communications in Organizations that lasted from 1.30 till 3.30. What did we do? Well, I watched Working Girls starring Melanie Griffith and Harrson Ford (great old movie by the way) and yah, that is all i have done. On a Saturday!

no, i am not experimenting with all of the items in my title at once. it's just that i've noticed the friendly 7-11 stores on campus have been seeling these Meiji brand milk in cartons like those used in Vienna (which jolts back memories) and since there seemed to be alot of folks in my classes drinking them, I decided to try the chocolate flavored one. At a price of 1.50 (75 Euros cents) for a carton, it seemed pretty reasonable, and darn! The only flavours of Mocha, Strawberry and Chocolate are all only available in low-fat (which may explain why most drinkers are gals...)


I tried the chocolate one and sadly, I think it tastes pretty coffee-ish rather than dark chocolate. But then again, I have a friend, Shuting, who seemed to think that I am the only one with this weird taste bud. She thinks it tastes perfectly chocolate-tish. Not that I am complaining cos last I counted, in the past 1 week alone, I had downed one everyday I'm in school. They are just bso damn handy when I have my 15 minutes break and since the drink store practically has a wait in line that though stretches for only a short distance, those aunties making drinks seemed to take an eternity just to prepare one blardie coffee (coffee powder, add water, stir, add sugar and that's it! is it that challanging?).

In my opinion, I find coffee flavored milk to be soooo horrible. I mean, why drink coffee-flavored milk? Hello! There is an actual beverage call coffee on the market! And after I say this, some nice folks will tell me "Well, I hate coffee...I prefer milk..." Then my mind will think " Then why take coffee flavoured milk if you hate coffee?!" Just one of those things that puzzle me.

Now that Igot that over, I am gonna share with all a wonderful sinful indulgence we have here called Japanese Cheesecake. Yes, Japanese Cheesecakes... Essentially, there are the same as New York Cheesecakes in that they are all, cheesecakes! But the core difference is that Japanese Cheesecakes are fluffy and light. They are like sponge cakes but with a nice aromatic wonderful cheese taste. And I love it! I got this particular cheesecake from BreadTalk, a local bakery that revolutionises the way people shop at bakery when they introduce the designer bakery concept few years back. In their stores, breads of various varieties (up to 66 different kinds i heard) are displayed like a boutique. Basically, i think it's just a great gimmick for this 'creative' company to up their prices of the bread by 50%...






Just how successful are they? Well, they are a listed company in Singapore and till date has expanded their franchise to countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Phillipines, and god knows where else?! By the way, the two photos of the shop are not from Singapore, I just googled up these images and apparently, the first's from Philipines and the later from HK.

Who said bread is cheap?!

Lastly, I met up with woman-in-love-cos-she's-getting-hitched Adeline and her oh-so-talented-singapore-airlines-pilot-that-will-be-her-husband Kevin last night for a drink at Singapore's only German Microbrewery (that's what they say at their website!) Paulaner Brauhaus. Shirley whom I have not met for ages (the last time we met was when we went to watch Lost In Translation!!) was also there and we all just have a great time chilling out! I had for myself only one 0.5L lager and ordered a Kaisermarrn (??) Felt so cheated by the dessert! Although it taste good, but i miss the original one from Diglas!!! And hello? Where is the plum sauce? By the way, my beer costs $14 buckaroos! This is 7 Euros. Yes, 7 euros for a .5L, and that's roughly the norm price here. Now u all know why I have to be sober at home!


More photos will be up in the next post as i borrowed Shirley's ultra sharp and cool camera for the photos...

Japanese Curry and some Curry Favoring...

Met up with Ling last night to pass her the pressies I got for her from Vienna, and since I threw away tons of stuff at the airport since my farking baggage was 30kg overweight, I had to scrap together of what I shipped back earlier in the box of Manner waffles and passed it to her. We had Japanese food, and yes, I am really craving for Jap food as evident from the 2 meals I already had since back for less than 2 weeks. This time round, we went to Curry Favor, a Japanese café bistro opposite my university that serves great delicious Japanese Curry and I had the Pork Fillet Curry and Ling ordered the Pork Fillet with Cheese Curry Rice. Yummy.

brand new me!

Met up with Tina and Vanessa(who's on her internship at Deloitte) for some gossip (meaning Tina complaining to Van on how much she suffered while travelling with me in Europe) and to satisfy my craving for japanese food at Sushi Tei, where I had a plate of sushi rolled with tempura and coated with crab roe, and a plate of agadashi tofu beancurd, and plate of fried salmon. Yummy. I simply love Sushi Tei, because they actually serve alot of cooked food, unlike Sakai Sushi where all u get are tons and tons of raw food which i don't really fancy. Besides, Sushi Tei is more quaint and more me (meaning, understated elegence interior with nice dim lights, so everyone looks better)

Vanessa was famished and she ordered a bowl of Teriyaki Chicken Rice and after stealing some bites from her bowl, I must say it's quite delectable.

Now, for the BIG news...drumrolls please...I have gotten a new haircut! yes, that's right! after class today at noon, i decided to skip my Business Processes class from 12-3.30, or rather, i decided to drop BP after Lauren told me to take it next term because the 'good' (which means no final examinations) professor is only teaching next semester. Being to hate-exams me, i decided to heed my friend's advice and ta-dah, drop the class in a click of a second.

Ok, back to new haircut! I decided to crop off my luscious long locks and get it really short, so here it is!

In case u cannot get enough of me (meaning i am gonna be so vain and show you all another photo whether u like it or not), here's another view..haha

Ahhh...taking self potraits, that is so comforting...

I feel so light after the hair got snipped off, and it's so perfect for this hot and wet weather back home! Loving my new hair! Claus said the 2 photos do not portray me as a cheerful and happy person, so dear Claus, here's another photo for you! haha, and to show all i am indeed happy and cheerful! hahaha...

Lastly, update on my internet situation: Went down to Singtel to get my broadband re-activated and those lazy bums will only be able to puch a button on their computer system to activate my home connection on 17th jan (is it that hard to push a farking button?) and also, I have gotten a webcam so i can now give the whole world a peek into my life! haha, next up: securing that exclusive reality tv show contract about me, me and ME with a major network! haha

Till my next post, miss you all!

P.S: Whitney dah-ling, i believe you'll get through all that shit soon! and i look forward to ur happy voice and wacky expression on skype! Montse! Miss you lots and have a great lunch at Diglas later with Claus(!!!) and JB(!!!)...oh and to Rob...ARE U FARKING EVADING ME BY NOT REPLYING? haha...just joking...please do not get too drunk and remember to keep whitney sober and clear headed! haha

First day of school, not a good start...

This is my school, well, at least, part of it anyway, or rather, part of the interior of the Business Building (there're 4 faculties, business, accountancy, social sciences & economics and information systems, with additional buildings of the main library and the administrative block)

The view of today's rainy evening at 6pm from the 2nd floor of Biz block

yes, we're very pampered and there're escalators and lifts and we are only 5 stories high...

The main central part of the Biz block, on a clear sunny day, it's brighter but there's actually a huge shelter over the top to prevent rain from pouring into the atrium, the doors around are study rooms like the photo further below, all air conditioned of course

And we all have student cards like this to tap onto sensors installed everywhere in school and on campus to enable only authorised personal gain access into the school's facilities (university ground is actually open to public, so these sensors act as filter to weed out outsiders)

Since my days back home, I have either been staying in bed while the sun is out or watching tv. basically, it's not as party-like-no-tomorrow as vienna. Yes. my life is that boringat home. Except for the few dinners with friends and mahjong(chinese poker sessions) i have with my friends, other stuffs basically involve watching tons of tv, sleeping, and eating. alcohol is not a big part of my life here, well, with such high prices for them, definately not. So I have been making myself a cup of Vienna Forever fruit infusion (thanks to Claus!) and enjoying those Mozart Chocos (thanks to Cathi!) at home while sitting with my huge gigantic belly sticking out on the sofa watching tv, bad tv, at least...






The jet lag is still here! I had no sleep for the past 24 hours and counting simply because if I sleep now at 4 or 5 pm, I'll wake up at 11 pm and my jet lag will never go away! Hence, I was so tired in class just now that if not for the gossipy blog i was reading on my lappie, I'd have fell asleep right in front of the boring and utterly non-aesthetically pleasent looking professor(which just makes matters worse!). So contemplating dropping this course and switching to Woman In Film even though there is an exam for it. Actually, I think i did bid for WIF just now...hmmm, or am i dreaming? Anyway, still in school using the wireless LAN they have as my internet at home is still not fixed.

Anyway, it felt kindda weird to be back home; back home to this sucky system where everyone just mug and have no fun. Also, i'm missing alot of friends in school cos' they're all leaving for exchange in Europe. The only thing i feel close to me is the sweat I am dripping all over Singapore. The weather is typically December, meaning, monsoon and raining and with sweltering temperature of 24 degress celsius to 30, that means it's a perfect combination of humidity and wet armpit stains on dark colored tops. Managed to talk to Mindy over Skype during class and I think the entore fucking class knows I ain';t paying attention to Mr Bore-Me-To-Gossip-Blog-Reading-To-Stay-Fucking-Awake, simply because my keyboard was LOUD with the nice rythm of me typing against the keyboard. Mindy was complaining bout the wet and cold weather she's going through in Oregon and in her words, Singapore's weather's like the hotter version of her part...Ha. Aptly described.

Many things happened in Asia too. Firstly, i think 6 (definately not lesser than this amount) bombs were blasted on 31 Dec in Bangkok killing 3 and injuring 30+, then, an airplane went missing in Indonesia 2 days ago and till date, the government has not found where the hell it is. Back home, a middle aged lady fell down a short fleet of stairs in the opera house here while on her way to the toilet and went into a coma, then she died. Another man was hacked to death by a group of people when he crossed the border to Malaysia. What a great start huh?

Remember the night where i went for dinner at thai cafe with me friends? Fucking Mcdonalds had such bad bad bad connection that i cannot upload my photos. Here they are:

The papaya salad and Tom Yum Prawns soup which I had




The name of the bistro: Thai Express on the Avocado Milkshake I had which was very mild and non milkish or avocado-ish.


Also, I want to share with all the panoramic view from my room's window and the balcony taken at around 7 am cos i had jet lag and could not fucking sleep so i had to resort to taking photos to keep myself entertained!

The yellowish facade is the primary school i went to from age 7 till 12.


View from balcony with a nice sun rise.

I am home. with no internet. period.

Hi all, after going through tons of drama at Vienna Airport that involved 30kg of overweight baggage that amounts to 900+ Euros (which I did not pay of course) and a hectic last minute of diascarding tons of stuffs away at the check in counter (only to have them tell me that they are willing to accept my overweight stuffs) and the best part, carrying my ultra un-glam Ikea nylon bag as carry on baggage, and running through Zurich airport within a 30min connection time. I finally made it back home. The best part was when i decided to intoxicated myself on the plane back by downing tons of alcohol...ha...that was a good part.

Finally back home and surprise! I forgot my dial up password to my internet account on the 56.6 kps plan. Yes, 56.6, dialup, and this entry is in 2007. Apparently, dial up is still not dead. Well, i must explain why i even have dial up in the first place. Since I'm gone for 4 months, i decided to not pay the 3o Euros monthly fee for my broadband and switch to a cheap student 56.6 kps plan for 3.50 euros mainly to maintain my email account. Joke's on me for forgetting my password now. Punishment for being cheap.

Now at Mcdonalds blogging with a bunch of friends and boy, are they getting irritated. Imagine 4 folkjks with nothing better to do and waiting for their friend to update his blog. Better go off...seeya guys soon.