Auld Lang Syne

Been cracking my brain on what to write for the last post of 2007. Think i shall be traditional and reflect on what i had done in this year...

Things i had done in 2007

1. i gained 3-5 kg. Note there's a 2kg range cos i'm still in denial.... Don't dare to step on the scales.

2. i stopped going to the gym. Well, not completely. If visiting once a month counts!

3. i ate lots of ramen. i even got a special column for that!

4. i did lots of shopping. really gotta curb my impulsive buys.

5. i procrastinated... lots of stuff unaccomplished... sigh....

6. i started keeping a blog.

7. i turned __ this year.

8. ....
9. .....
10. ....

Gosh... this is hard.... age is really catching up... can't remember what i did all this year. Enough of what i had done... maybe i should list down my resolutions for 2008. i know it sounds cliche to do this but it is, in fact, the first time i'm doing up a list. We've heard all about people not being able to fulfil resolutions so let me try and be a little more pragmatic in this.

Resolutions for 2008

1. Lose that 3-5kg i gained in 2007. (No, think i better just make it 3kg cos weight is easy to gain but hard to lose... Or better make it 2kg instead...)

2. Go to the gym at least twice or thrice a week. (hmm... i have hit my target for the week! i went yesterday and today! yay!)

3. Stop buying books. i've got a fetish. i like to collect books... books i bought which i think are useful and classics but which i've never got round to reading... Pull me away from Kinokuniya when they are having 20% off!

4. Stop buying wine. i've got 3 types of alcohol in the past week alone and i can't down one-tenth of a glass!

5. Think twice before buying a new pair of shoes. And clothes. And bag.

6. Clean up my room before the dust settles.

7. Do up the photo album for my Hokkaido trip from ...................... hee......................... this is embarrassing....... June 2006....

Gone Shopping (Again!)

The MAIN point here is that i went to the gym (the 2nd consecutive day, ok!) after brunch. But i digress.... Sigh... why are all my gyms sited in / near shopping malls!? My legs just carried me to the G2000 at BHG as i was about to go home. It does not help that the top that i had been eyeing for months is now on SALE! i simply have to grab the chance to get it! Imagine the savings i had made! It does not help either that the changing room queue is so slow that i had a chance to wander around and grab a few other items to try. No point waiting there and doing nothing right?? Simply no point at all... But i controlled myself. In the end, i only walked out with one top and a pair of culottes. And i made a startling discovery! G2000 members are entitled to a whooping additional 15% off sales items! What the %^&#!! i would had saved even more! Pity i do not hold the card... Anyone who has the card, please fall in!

Happy New Year Eve

We had brunch (again! :P) at Hans to usher in the New Year. Most of my colleagues ordered the breakfast set but i got the tomato and pine nut pesto. Looks very promising and lots of yummy pine nuts. Alas, the taste is average only.

「１リットルの涙」特別篇‧追憶

Finished watching One Litre of Tears Special. Basically it is about how Aya's loved ones get by after her death. Most of it are recaps of the drama which are woven into this Special. If you have not seen the drama, this is a good introduction to the show. Cried LOTS while watching but it felt great! (o_O") keke. Other than the title track, the song that is performed by the choir is also very nice. 3月9日 (sangatsu kokonoka)

Last gathering of 2007

8 of us turned up at tao's restaurant for dinner. we were given a private room but service was kinda slow... seems like this is the problem with most private rooms...

bacon & mushroom gratin with bread - for a starter, i thought this was too heavy to the palate. i mean, i'm feeling full after downing this appetiser. (minus 10 points!) for a gratin, it is cheesy enough but somehow lack a certain punch to it.

mango sorbet - this is just a chilled drink. i was having some difficulty trying to decipher what flavour is this... we thought it was orange and mango punch... hehe... and the ice bits are too big...

fruit salad - someone commented that the presentation looks like dog food... =_=" but it is surprisingly nice. Well, at least i think it did its job well enough to make me wanna eat more.

grilled mushroom - average

cream of pumpkin - very nice. This taste different from the usual pumpkin soup i've tried which are puree-like. This is soupy enough to taste the pumpkin pulp. Can i come back and just order this?? (^^,)

slow cooked pork back ribs - average. Too much fats and the sauce is slightly too salty.

ice rose apple tea - very nice and refreshing. tried my friend's ice grape mallow tea which taste like diluted ribena

creme brulee - a huge disappointment. taste like ordinary custard pudding.

In all, we paid about $30 each for this 7 course dinner. I may come back to try some of the other stuff but this place is kind of far from the mrt station...

After dinner, we are left with half strength. As usual, we always have difficulty deciding what to do next.
Ktv? AL had just sung in the afternoon.
Movie? WL had movie overdose and there isn't a single movie left that is interesting which all of us have not seen.
Board games? Out!
Bowling?
Pool?
Chill? K was not dressed to the occasion
Mahjong!? @_@ forgot i've even asked!

Ended up walking up and down Bras Basah Road before we settled at tcc (again) at citylink.... service was good. they "forced" a couple to another table so that we could take the 4-seater. i really must recommend the must-NOT-try here! enough said.

rose juliet

ti-rum-misu

Happy Anniversary

Place: Fortune Cuisine
Location: Block 106 Clementi St 14 (off Sunset Way)

Went to this bbq cum steamboat buffet to celebrate my parents' wedding anniversary. Mummy's friend had strongly recommended it. But we all don't find the food super nice... :S It is only average. nothing special loh... the restaurants along the stretch seems more interesting. Quite surprised to see a whole stretch of restaurants at this place. There's even a bar that looks like a great place to chill out. But at a neighbourhood area, it looks kinda out of place...

Sidenote: Found out that today is XJ-san's parents' wedding anniversary too! What a coincidence! (^.^)

Merry Christmas Eve

My office had a mini-christmas party cum gift exchange today. Yay! The best part is we practically did not have to work. keke. (^_^)

Looks a little bare under the tree... i was lucky i picked up a box of chocolates. typical gift-exchange present. But was quite surprised no one gave rocher chocolates. (-_-") though i don't mind receiving those. (^^,) Some of my colleagues were quite "innovative". someone gave car wax and another gave a bag of those "freebies" stuff and didn't even bother to wrap it! *gasp* and we all know who he is!

Some of the food we had. The food is not bad. considering how bland catered food normally taste. yum yum. or perhaps i was hungry. (^o^)


who killed Santa?? ~ help! ~

**secret** i also made handphone pouches for 2 of my colleagues. forgot to take pics of them before i gave them away. lol.

Buffet Dinner @ Cafe Vic

Last night, we had our annual xmas gift exchange. Wanted to make something instead of buying to make it more meaningful.. (i'm not saying that your presents are not meaningful. :P keke.)

After the not so successful first attempt (see earlier post), i made this pouch instead and gave it (together with a bracelet) to MT for the gift-exchange. Such a pity i'm occupied with this project, otherwise i would make the bracelet myself too! :) seems like it has been so long since we last gathered. we were all reminiscing and joking about our previous years' Christmas celebrations at bintan.

This year, we end up having dinner at cafe vic at Carlton Hotel. The buffet spread is not bad, quite a good selection and variety of food. As usual, we were all busy digging in so no food photos were taken. hehe. But somehow after a while, it seems that the only food nice are the oysters - small but fresh and no fishy taste and the tomato soup! lol. i only had a couple of oysters but YZ and LF ate LOTS!! *jaw drop* i ate a little of almost every single item except for those normal so-called 菜饭 dishes as YZ said. i gave the durian pudding a pass cos i was really bursting at the seams. but i could smell that it is good.


here are our presents all wrapped up prettily. guess which is mine and which is the one i gave away??

this is the present i received. nice white patent handbag and a cute pooh paper bag.

~tis the season to be jolly. fra-la-lalala-la-la-la-la~

Fruits of Labour

Had been labouring over my new found, rekindled hobby recently! This is the result of working hard over 2 off days this week. i'm so proud of me! hehe.

This is my first crochet bag after 18 years! lol. Wanted to give it as a gift exchange but i ran out of the green yarn and somehow the vertical design on the bag turned out slanted. =_="

so i had to rush something out within 12 hours. wanna see what i did?? see the next post. :)

Sakura Buffet and iMax movie

My office went to sakura for lunch today as part of our family day celebration (it's more like a staff day imo cos usually no one brings their family along. keke.) i think the food is quite good for the price. (Dunno how much cos we didn't need to pay but the web says $20+++). The salmon sashimi is one of the best i've tried recently in buffet spreads. Two thumbs up!! One of my colleague ate so much i think he would have eaten one whole fish! i think other than the cold soba which is horrendously tough and the bbq-cum-grill-cum-stir-fry counter (the one where u need to order and they will serve you), all the other food i've tried are pretty decent. But my fav has to be the ice cream bar!! They have 10 different flavours!! i've only managed to try 4 of them.. Hehe. And they are all nice! Rum and raisin, mocha chips, nata de coco and mango. The last two have small bits of coconut and mango in them. The funny thing is they don't have chocolate ice cream... i thought that is the no. 1 must-have flavour in every ice cream bar! Lol.

After the satisfying lunch, we watched Hurricane on the Bayou at the Omni Theatre. Nothing really spectacular cos i was hoping for some really nail-gripping, mind-blowing effects. my only vivid memory of the theatre was being "ran over" by a train while i was in primary school. Hehe... None of those today... Was kinda disappointed in fact... Still, the show's pretty decent. One good thing about watching on IMAX is that everything looks so real and vivid. Almost like you are there yourself. :)

Since it was still early, some of us popped over to the Science Centre for a visit. Have not stepped into that place for yearssss... It has changed a far bit but still packed with noisy kids running and screaming around. The only highlight of the day was catching the Tesla Coil Demonstration which is a highly dramatic and electrifying live demonstration of high voltage electricity. This 3.5 million volt coil generates spectacular five-metre long electric sparks that is akin to natural lighting. We saw the sparks blew up two hydrogen inflated balloons into flames right under our noses!! But after a short browse around, we decided that shopping malls are definitely more interesting to us and so off we go! Haha..

but why, oh why did i forget to bring my camera for this occasion?? bash !$#%&@!

Say a little Prayer

On a more sober note, visited my uncle who was hospitalised for the past 2 weeks. he's scheduled for a major operation tomorrow morning. we are all praying for his speedy recovery. gambatte!

[10Dec: WTH! the op was rescheduled cos the hospital's out of icu beds... ]

Added: my uncle's finally gone for the op on 17Dec. it was a success! :)

Gone Shopping

Here's my loot from this weekend! now, i REALLY have to eat grass!

Macaron from Bakerzin

Finally gotten a chance to try the becomingly ubiquitious macaron... hmm... crunchy on the outside, moist and chewy on the inside.. taste alright but did not have any particular 幸福的感觉.... other than it is super expensive! hehe...

Back to the Dance Floor

Yippie!! Dance class resumed today after all these months!! at last, there's finally enough to make up a class but only 2 of us are from the same beginner class. oh well, simply glad that this class visualised in the end. out of practice for so long... aching thighs and feet! but it was fun today! revised our steps, learnt some new technique and a new dance hold. it's now tummy to tummy! omg! hehe.

i'll be waltzing for the next 5 weeks and can't wait for the next lesson. we'll be learning the sashay! ooOoo.. i'm loving Wednesdays from now on!

Sapporo Ramen Bishamon

Was pouring today, which means it is the perfect weather for ramen! hehe. seems that ramen tens are sprouting all over recently. tried this new outlet @ Great World City for lunch.

i had the special miso ramen ($13). nothing special to me.

oh wait! it IS special.
special salty soup base. on par with ichibantei's.
special expensive cos there was only one single slice of char siew.. but at least there's more menma than usual.
special clumsy cook who made a hole in my ajitsuke tamago.
special strong tasting (very spicy and pungent) spring onions.

Shiawase na Jikan

Owatta!! demo, sotsugyou wakeniwaikanai.... :( mondai wa muzukashikatta shi, jikan mo sukunai kara... ii seiseki wa muri da!

KiNChyoU Na JiKaN

Countdown... 4 more days to go... sigh... why does this happen to me every year?? 临时抱佛脚... :( lucky this year's test centre is at west coast and not changi... sigh... back to study... Gambatte!

Pasta de Waraku

Tried the Chicken and Mushroom pasta in tomato cream sauce. Dunno if my taste buds are affected by my current state of well-being... but the tomato cream sauce does not taste anything like tomato nor cream sauce. Argh! So much for being adventurous! i had thought the "japanese style original tomato & cream sauce" would be impressive... well, next time i shall stick to the item that has the biggest photo in the menu! :P

Lust Caution

i simply do not understand the hype behind this show. finally caught the uncensored version but frankly the only talking point of this movie are the 3 controversial roams in the bed between the 2 leads and i think that's all to this movie. zit! it is THAT bad... i think it would not make any difference if the world did not have a frontal view of the leads' assets and all that acrobats. even the good acting of tang wei cannot redeem the weak and flimsy plot.

ok, some gossip! the diamonds in the show are supposedly real and the ooh-so-gorgeous! 6-carats pink diamond ring is from cartier! OMG!

Lost & Found

I found the fish soup that i drank almost everyday for 2 weeks during my IA!! It is still there after all these years!! (hehe. not going to say how long since then!) Not that it was lost before but i had not come to this hawker centre after that 2 wks of IA. it survived the construction around it and the renovation of the food centre. And it is still at the exact same spot! i think the standard has dropped a little but it sure brings back memories!

Fish soup @ Seah Im food centre
Dun ask me the stall name cos i dun know. i know the stall location and that's the most important part, isn't it? \(^o^)/

MOS - Of Porridge & Milo

2147hrs - At home after my shower
I saw this msn chat box from AL. (not the exact words but something to the effect)
AL: are you there? YS asking wanna go St. James.
Me: what! now!?
AL: meet at 11?

2335hrs - Starbucks @ The Central
Feeling thirsty and hungry so ordered a bottled pomelo drink and chocolate muffin to start off the night.
Pomelo drink - so-so
Chocolate muffin - yucks! not sure if they gave me the wrong muffin cos it tasted like banana muffin instead. left it after 3 bites.

0010hrs - MOS
We still need to queue at this unearthly hour!? The queue moved quite fast but we were not asked to check ICs... sob sob... :P surprisingly the place was relatively empty except for Smoove. after a tour of the place and our 1st drink, we settled at 54, boogie-ing to the house disco and retro mix.

0245hrs - Toilet break and 2nd drink

Vodka cranberry and vodka lime taste equally bad, equally diluted. Feeling a little hungry......

0310hrs - smoove

Saw a girl who looks pregnant standing next to us. erm.. ok... maybe i'm wrong cos she was gyrating to the R&B beat later on...

0340hrs

Really hungry now. Got a sudden craving for porridge. But after some deliberation, headed to Macs at Liang Court instead. My tummy making funnie noises again. The same feeling as last weekend. spent the time waiting to burb again. drank only half of my iced milo without ice.

0500hrs

Walked to Merlion cos YS wanted to feel the sea breeze and see sun rise. Saw a lot of pretty "ladies" outside MOS. Chit chat in the darkness at Merlion.

0605hrs - Raffles MRT station

Slept all the way home. Feeling hungry again... But dun dare to eat anything. I think i'm probably dehydrated. we gave the sunrise a miss.

0720hrs - Zzz...........

0930hrs

what?!!? only 2 hours has passed? i thought i had slept for 8 hours! forced myself back to slumberland.

1115hrs

what!??! it's still morning!? ok. dun force myself to sleep liao. think better adjust back to normal waking hours so that i can sleep tonight!

I know i have some crazy friends but i din know they are so spontaneous! hehe. and i'm crazy too! and i still have not gotten to eat my porridge! (@_@)v

Amazing Race 12

OMG!! The Race is BACK! Luckily my papa was channel surfing and there it is!! So lucky to have caught the 2-hr premiere on tv! i'll be glued to the goggle box every Wed from now! (^^,)v

who will win this season??

溫嵐 - 同手同腳

OMG! this song is so touching that i cried!! (^^')

Delicate to my Bro.

i'm-too-tired-i-can't-think-of-a-title post

Went for k-dinner for the first time. Not a very nice experience for the tummy... esp after eating and trying to exert the "dan dian" to sing. can feel the food being pushed up till the throat...

As the night is still young, we went for TWO cuppas. Really a cuppa too many... Teh tarik + Starbucks Peppermint Frappucino certainly did not go well together in my tummy. Went home with a super bloated tummy... i'm so tired but can't sleep with gas in my throat. i really envy my bro who can burp at will. i usually would wait till it goes naturally or do the baby thing - pat my back or front to induce burping but i think i would do a merlion if i were to do that now... so i would just have to wait... =_=

Being the lone ranger in the west, i always get the first cab home. Usually i would get the slient cab driver but today's cab driver is the super-long-winded-and-speaks-with-a-super-slow-tone-that-makes-you-wanna-go-to-sleep kind. There's something in his tone and manner that i find very familiar. I was caught red-handed squinting my eyes in the darkness to read the cab driver's name pasted on the wind screen. We realised that we used to work in the same site. He then began recounting his cab driving tales and drove at a crawling speed (considering how cab drivers like to cruise like they were Lewis Hamilton) and to my horror of horrors, even turned round to confirm that it is me!! Not exactly my favourite person at that time but hey, he gave me a discount on my cab fare. what can i complain about?? :P

On The Nalanda Trail

Dance class is cancelled yet again... looks like we are not fated to have the intermediate class... :(

so YZ and I decided to visit ACM instead. For your information, admission charges on Fri evenings are at half price. The downside is that it is during 7-9pm only which is really too short a time if you were to look at all the exhibits at a leisurely pace.

We always have time for the special events only (hmm... which is why we went to the museum anyway). But i'm sure the standing exhibits are worth a look as well. (perhaps we should make a visit back again some day...) After viewing the exhibition, I realised that I really do not have any understanding of Buddhism at all... i think i would have enjoyed the exhibition more if i did.

On The Nalanda Trail: Buddhism in India, China and Southeast Asia is on from 02 Nov 2007 - 23 Mar 2008.

Happy deepavali

This must be my busiest week so far at work. Meetings and discussions for past 3 days all day long! Even my colleague also mentioned that she never see me so busy till no time to msn before! lol.

i was quite pleasantly surprised today when my boss told me that he appreciate the hard work i put in this week cos he can see that i was so tired that i looked like i'm going to fall off my seat! hehe. i just hope that my colleague comes back from his holiday soon. so that i can pass this project back to him!

i'm so grateful that this is a short work week! happy deepavali to me! v(^-^)v

卒業した!! (そつぎょうした)

いよいよ... 最後の授業になりました...

For those who had known me for some time would know that it has been my routine to attend jap class every week for the past 6 years! gasp! it is that long!

This year is very special as i had mentioned before... there's no exams. correction... there's exam but there is no cert given so it makes no diff if you pass or not. so this is the first time that i'm so relaxed during test time! hehe.

last lesson today... some of my classmates are continuing next year (i.e. they are retaking our SA class)... wonder if i shld do that too...?? if 先生 is still 米倉先生 and if the format is about the same as this semester... i dun mind... but thought of picking up some new hobby too...

よく考えて!

MOF の My Izakaya

finally a break from ajisen and ajitei. been eating there for 6 consecutive weeks!

XJ さん wanted to dine at pastamania but we couldn't find it. think it is under renovation. so its back to eating jap again. hehe.

some pics XJ さん took of the restaurant... thanks to XJ さん and her hp cam!

very quaint and nicely decorated place

XJ さん の tan tan ramen

私の miso char siew ramen (what else! :P)

i like the ramen and the soup. oiishii!! but the char siew is too tough... i didn't like it. XJ-san was telling me to order the miso charsiew ramen without charsiew! lol.

Kawaii deshou?

Nothing to do so i painted my nails!! hehe. (^^,)

Long time didn't paint le... cos painted nails too girly for me... and i find that i don't like the feeling of wearing polish after a while... nails felt like they're suffocating... lol

but i simply could not resist these super kawaii stickers!!

it's a big challenge taking pics with one hand... i wonder where did my mini-tripod go??

left hand pic taken with right hand (still in focus =))

right hand taken by left hand (as blur as sotong! :P)


kawaii inu

[Added on 9 Nov] - Oh i love these inu! They are still hanging around after nearly a week! still as good as new! hehe. i had bought some nail stickers from japan previously and they peeled off after one wash in the shower! these bought in s'pore stickers are really good! maybe bcos they are made in japan ba! :)

Mei Heong Yuen Dessert

Went to this dessert stall for dessert (what else! :P) It's just further down the street from the vegetarian stall. Funny, my mum and aunties would go to Chinatown every alternate week but they only discovered this stall today!

I had the Mango with pomelo and sago ($3.50). It's good! There's a lot of mango cubes. But somehow my heart still goes to Ah Chew's as it was there that i first discovered this dessert!

My aunt said the Cantonese dumpling ($3.50) was nice so we ordered one to share. It was HUGE! just nice for the 5 of us to share! hehe... the dumpling was generously packed with mushrooms, beans, pork, dried shrimps and salted egg yolk. Quite good.

Next time i shall try the pastes and the steam egg and milk!

Vegetarian Hor Fun

Had lunch at a small eatery along Temple Street. Didn't take note of the name of the place but I know the directions! hehe... Just wanted to write down that I like the vegetarian hor fun here. Got lots of "liao". :) Shared a plate with my mummy cos we had a late breakfast.

止战之伤

今早我的好友又来找我了。 嗨。。。 它总是喜欢在三更半夜来亲吻我！ 害得我无法睡得安稳。 最讨厌它总喜欢在我耳边细语， 还逼我玩捉迷藏。 本想与它和平共处， 毕竟我们已经井水不犯河水几个月了， 但它使出死缠烂打之招数， 逼得我走投无路不得不应酬它， 只好开灯陪它玩一玩儿。 我守株待兔， 等到它不耐烦露出阵脚。 我试图将它一网打尽。 怎知一山还有一山高， 我竟然让它的同党逃之夭夭。 想必今晚又有一番龙争虎斗。 看来我得施出我的杀手锏， 与它孤军作战。 蚊子， 放马过来！

Cafe Cartel

Met up with SN on a lazy sunday afternoon. It's usually very hard to get me out on a Sunday unless i initiated it. But since i would be clearing my hari raya off-in-lieu tomorrow so today is practically a Saturday to me! :P

SN suggested eating at cafe cartel cos there's free flow of bread and since there's increase in flour prices recently, he reckoned it's very worthwhile to eat free bread now. -_-" as usual, SN and his crap... have not heard much of that since i left my ex-company...

True enough the bread was very popular. It was snatched up every time it was replenished by the staff. OMG! We ate about 14 slices in all! hee.....

Must be the bread... we were having difficulties finishing our starter and main course. (Note the singular form of the noun used. cos we only ordered one starter and one main course!) It is known that metabolism rate decrease with age and now it's proven! I didn't know SN to be such a small eater! hehe...

Anyway, the Supreme Platter and the Ham & Eggs Club Sandwich were so-so only. i would have liked the sandwich more if the bread was not fried. after the citibank discount, we paid about $8 each! cheap cheap!

Lazy Sunday Morning

What shall i do on a lazy sunday when i do not need to work the following day?

1. go shopping
2. go watch movie
3. go play sport
4. surf the net and chat with frens
5. go makan with frens

Option 1 is out cos nothing to buy.

Option 2 is out cos nothing good to watch. (despite me wanting to use my popcorn card cos there's birthday discount!)

Option 3 is out cos i did that yesterday.

Left with Options 4 and 5.

I decided to jio the first person on msn out to lunch! hehe. After almost one hour of discussion, SN and I finally made up our mind to go IMM to look look see see walk walk. It was one of our fav long lunch locations when we were working at our ex-company.

[Sidenote: IMM had changed much in the past year. The only change i don't like is that they are going to start charging for parking from Nov 07! :( ]

Daiman 18 @ JB

Miracle! It did not rain today. The last few times i played here with my kakis, it would never fail to rain! Today's score was not that bad.. considering i had not swing my clubs for 3 months! but i lost 7 balls... :(

Mind Cafe

Went out with my colleagues last night on our monthly eat-out session.

i had the fish and shrooms pasta... won't eat it again. SL and SY ate the Crispy chicken platter which is quite nice. J got the Fisherman that is not bad too.

the fish and shrooms pasta... if only it taste as good as it looks...


the mind black & white brownie - yum!

There's this game that we played. Forgot what is the name... We wanted a fast paced game and this was recommended by the server. Basically, everyone has a bag with some objects in it. We are supposed to pick out an object from the bag (without peeping in it!) that is the same as the figure on the playing card. The fastest one wins.

Quite a childish game but we all had a good laugh.... at me! (-_-")

i must be getting old... or my sense of touch is not as good as the rest. i lost in all the rounds! :'(

Simply Red

Thanks to my colleagues for this belated birthday present! Have not gotten a watch for years! hehe.

The best thing is...... it's RED!

Speechless!

What a major let down!

After anticipating for weeks, it had to accumulate to this! First time that i felt so stressed out in class. First, the class started late cos the instructor G was busy concentrating her time on other projects. Second, when she asked about our dance background, she was surprised that the few of us were only beginners! Hello! You were the one who suggested we come for this technique class when there were not enough to make up the intermediate. Now look who's talking! I felt like retorting her when she said that technique was for those who had done intermediate. But I kept my cool. Way to go, gal!

During the class, we practised the basic steps and were told to dance around the room. Being our first lesson, we were not clear of what she wanted us to do. Did she want a sequence? Oh gosh! We had forgotten the steps. And there was no partner for us today. I had to partner J and both of us did not know how to lead. After seeing our disastrous attempt, she said she just wanted us to move across the room using whatever steps we know. Need not be a sequence, just go with the flow. What crap! She should make herself clear right from the start! Finally we managed to manoeuvre round the room, albeit a little clumsy.

Before the class ends, she taught us a new step which i gathered the rest of the class knew prior cos they could even do a variation of the step! It was so difficult that I had even forgotten the name of the step!

Sigh... Too challenging and we simply did not enjoy the class. So after it ended, we talked to K to voice our grievances to switch back to an intermediate class. Alas! The next intermediate class is on 28 Nov. That's such a long time away! And who knows it might not realise if the numbers are too little. So he suggested we take a private class since there're 5 of us. But it'll be more expensive. We'd have control over the timing though... What to do... No choice cos we prefer K to G as we are more familiar with K who was our beginner instructor. We really dun like G. So what if she's the principal. She's just not as approachable.

So we'll have to wait till 9 Nov for our first lesson after accommodating everyone's schedule. Anticipating that day... Just hope that it won't be a let down again... Seeking for a 6th person to take up the class with us to share the cost so it would be cheaper! Male preferred! hehe.

Oh ya. They still have the audacity to collect fees for today's class from us! Words just could not describe my exasperation! So much so that i had to type my thoughts on my hp on my way home in the train. If not, I might fall sick if I bottle it up!

More photos

Some more shots from yesterday... Though the competition was a disaster, some of the pics taken are quite nice imho...

though tiny, managed to capture the bumboat in the pic

another of the corner mirror shot. tat's me taking the photo!

somehow i think this photo is interesting. credits to QY for her legs?!

Canon Photo Marathon 2007

Can't believe i climbed out of bed at 0545hrs today for the Photo Marathon. YZ and I had signed up for the fun of it and were eagerly anticipating it last night. What we didn't expect is the full body workout! Almost like having ran a full marathon! My back was breaking after only the first theme! We were supposed to take photos fitting the themes given in the time allocated. One theme was given out at 0900, 1200 and 1500 hrs each respectively.

The first theme was Passion. huh... i was hoping that it would be rain... Cos it was raining... haha... anyway, saw that a lot of the participants started swarming to Food Republic to shoot the hawkers and eaters... us? we decided to just walk where our feet bring us!

This was what i submitted. Saw this mag lying on a sale rack at bras basah and just shot it on a spur of cheekiness. Was starving by the time we went back and submitted our photos.

The second theme was more challenging than the first cos the theme was a challenging Challenge. (@_@) It was a big challenge especially when we (the brave, lone souls using compact cameras) were being drowned by the pool of DSLRs. I wanted to submit this photo but YZ and QY said the latter was better...

The last assignment was Playtime.

Great! Everyone had the same idea of finding some kid to shoot. QY suggested shooting animals in their playtime. Problem is where do we find animals?! Our attempt at shooting butterflies and monitor lizards (gasp!) failed flat. Eventually some guys we saw at Millenia Walk managed to persuade a pair of siblings to pose for them. Alas! the limited capabilities of our cameras failed to capture the essence of the mood. In the end, handed in a photo i took in the morning outside the dance school.

Dunno if it is due to the physical or mental exercise, we were hungry the whole day. Been eating drinking eating drinking. Although we were all exhausted and drained, i think we had a great time! Esp. brainstorming funny (read: lame) ideas to illustrate the themes given. hahaha.

Anyway, i like the following few photos, even though they are not related to any of the themes at all.

so colourful! so cute! (^^,)

discovered that my old cam has the B/W mode only yesterday nite!

i simply like the feel of this photo

reflection

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao

We always like to go there for a good hearty meal. Nothing to really scream about but the must-eats are obviously the xiao long bao (hey! it's already spelt out in the restaurant name!) and the la mian.

We ordered the promotion set which consist of 2 冷盘, 2 小菜 and choice of 炒面 or 炒饭 and 3 点心. As my Bro was still hungry, we ordered 2 additional dishes. burb burb! :D

Some of the dishes worth mentioning....

上海小笼包 - do i still need to say anything? it's the signboard!

木须肉炒拉面 - nice cos the la mian was al dente.

翡翠赛螃蚧 - presentation is nice. taste nothing special.

酸辣汤拉面 - my bro's fav. very spicy! can see him sweat! haha!

of course what is birthday without a cake, right? the cake my mom bought. raspberry delight