Stefy's Orange County

I have been hearing this since my Vienna days when on a trip to Dublin, Samantha introduced me to the wonderful world of itunes radio and this sone Orange County by Stefy is juat damn addictive...so go to youtube and search for this song...I rpomise you its a great soooooothing melody.

All Bout' Singapore

People often ask me how my place is? What the hell do we do? Where on earth is the place I have been living in for the past 20 years? Well, I chanced upon this really great NY Times article that will explain everything:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/travel/01next.html?ex=1172120400&en=f68fe9235dcecc65&ei=5070

another feast

it's friday today and after 2 gruelling weeks of chaotic and madness in school, i finally have something to look forward to: dinner with Kiyo, Stevie and Jos! From 8pm till 1am, I was able to relax, and actually feel some nice warmth with my pals, which kindda makes me miss all my pals away on exchange now like Ivy, JR and Samantha, AND all those great friends I made while on exchange, Whitney, Mindy, Montse, Kevin, Cha, Mook, Fon, and of course, French folks AND ROB! haha...

Anyway, we met at Plaza Singapura and went to this Chinese restaurent called Lao Beijing, which meant Old Beijing. It is essentially a Choinese restaurent serving great old authentic Beijing fare in a rustic setting with interior mocked up to remind one to be in...Beijing! haha...but anyways, ther're tons of Westerners there (read: non Asians) and so, I think the food is really very good since it transcends, erm...nationalities? haha...but the food is really good and we had a plate of Fried Rice with Seafood, Spicy Beancurd (Tofu) with Seafood on hotplate, Steamed Juicy Meat Dumplings, Fried Dumplings with prawns and pork, AND Porkribs in Claypot. Satisfied meal and we decided to hop over to Cafe Cartel for some desserts.




We decided to get this ice cream platter thingy that serves 4, which is perfect! There's 8 scoopes of ice creams and cookies with whipped cream (which all of you know combines together to make up my favourite food item) Man! the ice cream platter was huge! It's served in this deep dish baking dish and a despite gorging up a Chinese feast earlier on, we 4 were still able to finish all that up! Josephine even ordered a seperate banana boat for herself! That woman can eat! And! Us 3 boys got something to drink too! Kiyo and Stevie got themselves iced choco and I settled for a nice White Choco Latte...My tummy is still farking bloated now!

Taken with Kiyo's Nokia camera phone...


Sony Ericsson's better huh? haha...look at all the cookies! Yummy!


They thoought it'll be a great idea to have all spoons in my direction...Haha, they just can't wait to see me swallow (no that swallow!haha) all that up!




My Latte


Halfway through the ice cream...full...full...fullllllllll


Well, this woman obviously can eat more!haha...


Finally finished all those ice cream! Noticed the untouched Latte?? haha

Gluttons Pig Out at Ben and Jerrys

Gourmet Club from campus held a Ben and Jerrys Dinner 'Buffet' (cos it only had 3 items served to us and it's not free flow, i should have read between the lines in the mailer!) and on the menu was chocolate coated hearts filled with Vanilla and Strawberry ice cream, Waffle with 4 mini scoopes of ice cream in dunno-what flavours, and lastly, 4 miserable tiny brownies with, wait, there was not any other thing that goes with the brownies.

Actually, it was kindda worth it for the cheap cheap bargain price of 10 bucks (5 euros) and of course, the company i was with makes a difference! haha...So, in between gossiping about project groups mates and commenting on the atrocious band that was jamming there, we managed to take some snapshots...


Sheryl with her unique tee that has her name...And she permed her hair! Ain't she lovely with those gorgeous curls?



K.S and me...with a pillow that I wonder how many butts and hands have carressed over it...


Guess who?


K.S and Kenneth, the ex president of Gourment Club, and it's thanks to him and his connections that we managed to get places for this event cos' there're only 20 places available!


This is so funny. Next to B&J's there's this waxing parlour call Strip (How aptly named) and they had like a series of 3 posters splashed across it's display along the walkway of the mall...one of them is this and I just cannot help but feel so tickled by it! Look at the tagline!


Sheryl's genius idea...not that I am complaining...

Newater plant visit

No...that's not the dancefloor of some club, but rather, a feature in the Newater plant (Newater is essentially the nicer term the government coined up for recycled water). Part of the 'fun' things to do for Intro to Physical Science class is this trip to the plant where they showcased the processes of membrane technology...blah blah blah...all scientific which explains my lack of interest...untill this cool floor feature...



Anyways, I had to go back to school today, on a Saturday no less, and joined the other 2 classes for this exciting excursion. The last time I went along for an excursion with my school, I had not even reached my legal drinking age of 18...Well, at least i had the company of Lauren, her lil sis Lenise (we're all taking the same course together) and while at school, chanced upon Jaslyn, who went to Dublin for exchange and was the nice soul who showed me around Dublin and toured the Guiness Factory. Jas and I were talking about how sucky this plant is because we do not locate any free alcoholic beverage being served, like Guiness Factory in Dublin. Well, at least they have recycled water that is supposedly of an extremely good drinking quality. Enuff of rants, better get back to my revision on Corporate Reporting as the test is coming on Monday!


Lenise, Jaslyn and Lauren

Poolside brunch for exchane returnees

The friendly folks at Office of International Relations held a high-tea gathering session for all exchange returnees and the incoming exchange students in SMU this afternoon and needless to say, I was there too! Especially more so since I just finished my presentation for International Economics earlier on, and I even brought along my shorts and polo tee to change into after the presentation (where I was clad stiffly in jeans and shirt)!

Saw so many friends there and it was really funny that none of the incoming exchange students actually turned up, Elise and I reckoned that they should be travellling since its' friday so they must be soaking up the sun and beaches in nearby malaysia. thailand or whatever island/tropical beach resort. Man! we need a great holiday to destress and relax too cos school's taking its toil on all of us :( So we three were busy with conversation that largely revolved around great tropical holiday villas and infinate pool (swimming pool with a view that stretches over into the ocean so u feel like you are swimming in the ocean)


me, elise and huiling!


me and sheryl, my project mate from international econs who's famished after the class, so i told her to be tina and gatecrash the party. haha...


the 2 lovelies...

a day out at Ikea

Yesterday, mum and i went to Ikea at Alexandra Road (not the new one that is at Tampines cos' its so freaking far!) and we, or rather, i bought tons of stuffs: stock up on candles, photo frames, wrapping paper, ribbons (what was i thinking?!), laundry bag cum trolley thingy, oh, and yes, filling up my stomach with those great food from the cafe. Mum had salmon with brocolli and boiled potatoes

and I had Curry Chicken with Baguette (in our local ikea, there's a daily 'local' special that serves Singapore food, meaning, it can be wither Chinese, Malay, Indian or even fusion depending on how the chief feels like)

We also had 6 chicken wings, and i top everything up tiwh a nice creamy vlevety chocolate mousse!

THANK YOU WHITNEY S. RHORER!

I cannot believe my eyes when i opened my post box tonight, and trust me, after a long day in school with lesson that ended at 3.15 and a wait till 7 in my formal dresscode of shirt and pants for the career talk by a securities firm which my friend told me to go because they apparently serve the best dinner, I was greeted by one fucking hour of boring talk in stockbroking (yeah, all that moo-lah you can make sounds great, but all i think of is the food after the talk) and when dinner is finally here, the food was...it's such a huge let down that lets not even go there...

So! imagine my surprise when i saw a package from the ever great wonderful Whitney (ok, dah-ling whitney, you'd know I'll still call you that even if you do not send me anything...) This issooooo exciting and she does knows my taste!!!!!!! A great black Paul Frank Tee with 'GO' in front! Absolutely Gorgeous!!!!!! I LURVE IT!!!






look at the nice lovely card she got!!!!!! with her imprinted name at the top of it!!!!!!!!

Ain't it lovely!!!

I'll wear it tomorrow!

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)