First Shoes of 2008

Got these two pairs of shoes with Papa's voucher. well... no one else wanted to use the voucher so i got it! hehe. spent only $9.90 cash. :)

First Dept Event of 2008

It's our cohesion day. We had a food race, "amazing race" style and ended off with a dinner and lucky draw. For the food (foot) race, we had to go to 7 food stations located around the Marina belt to eat designated food at every outlet and to complete some tasks. After completion of the tasks, we are given a clue to the next station.

First stop, Munchy Donuts @ Millenia Walk. we had to eat 5 donuts and guess the number of M&Ms in a box. I chose the Choz O' Cream. Yummy! Or maybe i was hungry as i had only beancurd for lunch and it was already 3pm! hehe.

2nd stop, Juice Station @ Marina Square. i think due to budget constraints, we were given only 2 cups of a celery-like juice to down. Since there are 8 people in our team, this is easily accomplished. Afterwhich, we had to form a line and walk together with a balloon between our thighs.

Next, we ran to the 1st cinema in Singapore - Capitol Building. Yucks. we had to eat bitter gourd, lime and chili. i can't take spicy food so i ate the bitter gourd which luckily is not bitter. hehe. i heard the chili is very hot!

Our 4th stop is the Makansutra Gluttons Bay @ the Esplanade. During our race, we had meet alot of other teams running around and we knew that New York New York @ Citylink was one of the stations. Someone suggested that we eat at New York New York before proceeding to the Esplanade as it was on the way and since the game master don't really seem to check. hehe. But being people of the highest integrity and good sportsmanship, our hesitant feet could not bare to bring us to the challenge and so we missed a chance to grab the lead. hehe. So we sprinted to the Esplanade completed our task of passing rubber bands with a straw in our mouths, ate up a plate of kaya toast and made our way to MOF (aka Ministry of Food).

We happily crossed over to Marina Square but to our horror, there was no one there. gasp!! We went to the wrong MOF!! We raced back to the small MOF counter at Raffles City and ate a big tub of frozen lime sorbet.

Finally, our next clue brings us to New York New York. When we reached there, there were a few other teams waiting for their food to be served. OMG! What a waste of time! We completed our task of matching countries to their capital cities in no time but the food is still not ready! I think we waited about 15 minutes for our food to come. When we passed by the restaurant earlier, there were piles of food waiting for contestants but now it is the other way round. While waiting, we overheard other groups saying that this was their 4th or 5th stop. We were patting ourselves on the back secretly cos we are going onto our final stop next. hehe. After a huge struggle, we managed to finish up the oversized chicken burger and headed next to Old Chang Kee @ Suntec City.

Another challenge awaits us. We have to finish up a box of OCK snacks. By now, I can only manage a cold and oily spring roll. With our task of separating a bag of green, red and soybeans done, we made our way back to the pitstop which is also where our dinner will be served.

After about 2 and half hours, we turned in 4th in the race. There were at least 20 teams i think, so our results are not that bad. The consolation was that we were the first to arrive from our House Colour so we were able to bring in some points for our House which eventually came in as the runners-up house. :) Oh well, the fun is in the process. We all had a wonderful time racing around and i'm really impressed with the energy and zest of one of my teammates. This grandfather of two was running and eating with us that makes some of the younger teammates pale in comparison. hehe.

The buffet dinner and entertainment was entertaining enough but i didn't win anything in the lucky draw... :( My colleague won a web cam but since he already had one so he passed it to me.

This is a super lonnggg post. I was completely exhausted when i got home so most of it is written on Saturday morning. Work accomplished! Now gotta clean up my room for CNY! :p

Love Yourself

Found myself humming this song all of a sudden this morning in the office pantry. hehe. :) Searched the whole of youtube but could only find the concert version of the song... i like the MV version much much better with only the chinese lyrics.

不管什么时间 不管下雨还是失恋 多看自己一眼 也许没有人在我身边 也要灿烂一天

不要隨便叹息 baby 愈是脆弱愈要好好爱自己

Love Yourself everyone! v(^_^)v

Desperately Seeking Dance Partner

Today's the last lesson of intermediate waltz class... Actually, last week was the last lesson. No, officially, the last lesson was two weeks ago. We extended the class again and again cos we really prefer waltz and we really need to practice our steps which are getting too much for uncle CL and auntie AN to remember... Gotta help write a step by step manual for them... i like my class. Like what our instructor said, waltz people are friendlier. (Yep, that's me. hehe! :p) They exchange numbers and keep in touch. Latin dance people just come for lessons and go! lol.

We'll be starting tango next. i still have not gotten a dance partner. it would be good if you have a fixed partner cos everyone dance differently. Help!!! Desperately seeking a dance partner here!

Tteokbokgi - Stir-Fried Korean Rice Cakes

Always see the people eating this red hot rice cakes in Korean dramas. Saw it at the revamped basement of Bugis Junction today. So i bought back some to try. It's spicy but not as spicy as i thought it would be and the chili is not the numbing kind, which is good for a non-spicy eater like me. Perhaps it was modified to suit local palates. i like the chewiness of the rice cakes but for the price i do not think i will re-buy it.

$3 for this tiny portion

Cloverfield

Caution! Do not watch if you are prone to motion sickness. The whole film is shot on a hand-held and K left in less than 30 minutes! As for those who survived the show, we were both physically and mentally drained in our bid to stay sober. Hehe. Me?? i didn't puke. :P The hazy scenes didn't bother me as much as the uncomfortable seats. I was bugged with an alternating backache (due to slouching in the seat to rest my neck on the super low back rest) and neck ache (i had to sit straight up in the seat to save my breaking back!) So remind me never to watch a show at Cineleisure's Hall 9 on level 4.

First Karaoke Session of 2008

No more Marina Square. Orchard Cineleisure, here we come!! Somehow even though both are under Kbox, you could sing 5 hours (2-7pm) at Cineleisure whereas at our regular Marina branch, only 3 hours! WL and i had two full hours to warm up before AL and KC arrived. We had a short break at 5pm when we went for a round of darts. You play for free and even get to win prizes! We are sold! Hehe. First try at darts. All the darts landed on the board. phew! But my score was not good enough to win a prize. erm... none of ours did... keke.

Next up, dinner at the Xin Wang HK Cafe. A was queueing up when we got there. Luckily we managed to get a table quite fast. i ordered a borch soup and a french toast. The borch soup was kinda diluted; the one at vivo tasted better. The french toast... well... as you can see, it's just a very thick slice of bread and butter. WL's theory of the biggest picture on the menu taste the nicest does not work here. Almost all of our food orders are... not worth mentioning. :P

Thanks to WL for use of his cam to take a shot of the very thick slice of bread!

Tao's Restaurant Revisited

I tried something different from my previous visit.

Salad - farm boy splendor - taste ok, quite appetising but i think i prefer the fruit salad. XX and i thought that it taste vaguely familiar but we just could not pin-point it.

Soup - fish soup. i think it is just salty water but my friends seemed to like it.

Entree - baked flounder with cheese. today's was just so-so. i remembered the small piece i sampled during my previous visit tasted better.

Dessert - yangsheng poached pear. average. i had thought the yangsheng meant ginseng so was surprised when my friends said there's a cinnamon taste. lol. The yangsheng is but 养生 instead.

Beverage - we ordered all different drinks so we could try them out. i had the ice rose apple drink again - nice. XX had the summer peach tea - got a minty refreshing taste. LF drank the grape mellow tea - i think is just a sweet drink. YZ got the grapefruit tea - this is a tricky one.. they said it's sour cos of the grapefruit but i don't think it's sour. In fact, i think there's a faint ginger taste in the drink which makes it a little odd. But my friends can't taste the ginger... hmm...

We were quite impressed with the service when we arrived at the restaurant. When LF arrived (late again!), the waiter had asked her, "Are you so-and-so's friend?" Whoa.... But then, we were the only one or two table around when we arrived, so they were more attentive. As the place started to fill up, the small talk became lesser.

Caramel Corn

Yummy! (^^,)

Back to School

XJ-san and i decided to pull ourselves up on a nice lazy sunday morning to retake our jap class again cos we are so bored and there's no other better way to practice our language. Hmm... maybe only me, cos she's now working in a jap speaking environment... How i wish i can drop everything and go to the land of rising sun. That way, my jap will sure improve... Sigh... That is but a dream...

The Princess (aka Guru) is Retiring

Okay. i'm going to hibernate soon. i mean, from malls. During lunch, i spent about two-thirds of the ang bao that dropped from heaven. It's all my colleagues' fault for talking about getting new clothes for Chinese New Year. i think i might have broken my personal best for buying the most number of clothes in 45 mins. Alas, i could not break my colleague's record. She managed to grab even more in a shorter time! She wins by a pair of pants and skirt!

Congrats! HH

Met up with some of my sec schoolmates for dinner. How long has it been? A year or two?? ZQ had thought there was a bakerzin outside PS. ok.. it was indeed. Donkey years ago. Hehe. In the end, we settled at tcc cos we were standing right outside the cafe and omg, we have a pregnant lady in our midst! HH is expecting twins! We can't ask the one with a bulge to walk too much right?! keke. (^^,)

Seriously, they should stick to coffee. (though the coffee isn't much to scream about from what i had sampled so far). Looking at what we ordered. Both HH and I got the seafood aglio olio (done specially non-spicy for us which turned out quite bland. only the prawns are ok). ZQ got the kahlua salmon (which was overcooked and a fly came swarming immediately the dish was served). HN had the cheesy tofu deck (which i had wanted to order - HN said it was ok) and HT ate the tofu tortellini which don't look impressive.

Next up, the desserts. We got 2 dark devotion to share. There was supposed to be lava of chocolate oozing from the warm chocolate cake. But one of the cake turned out burnt, the lava dried up.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

This is one of the fastest book i had read other than those containing a certain Harry Potter. i had heard (or rather known) of this book for some time but i did not want to pick it up as i was repelled by the title. i thought this was some kind of religion book. i'm not religious nor a religon holder so why do i need to know who would i meet in Heaven? Most importantly, i fear death. Even the mere thought of death and the afterlife can make me freeze in fear; literally, my temperature would drop, my brain would freeze and i would break out in cold sweat. So this is not a topic that i'm really prepared to think (read) about.

So what made me buy this book now? Truthfully, the fact that it had remained a bestseller for quite a while and largely, the 20% discount at Kinokuniya. This is one of my favourite places in town and i would never fail to bring something home during its sales. Also, in the last month of 2007, a number of people i know or someone related to people i know had passed on. My uncle had a near scare too.

i had read the book during 4 train rides. This book is unlike any other book i had read. Well, it begins at the end, with Eddie (the protagonist) dying in the sun. It would have to, wouldn't it? So that he could go on to meet the five people in heaven. It figures. Well, i'm not sure am i fortunate that i read the book on the train cos many a times, i had caught myself tearing. i would have cried unreservedly if i were not on the train. i shared my thoughts with a friend and she said she cried while reading it at home in the deep of the night. So i'm not the odd one. Many emotions and reflections appeared before me while reading it. This afternoon, i overhead this mummy sitting beside me telling her boy who caught me reading that this is a sad book. Sad? i'm not sure if it is the right adjective.

On a sidenote, i saw something interesting on tv news tonight. Apparently people in Ghana treat funerals as celebrations instead of the solemn and sombre functions most civilisations have. They have really fun and colourful coffins, replicas of beer bottles, chicken, aeroplane, etc. You name it, you have it. Though sad, perhaps we should really see funerals as celebrations of a person's life, rather than mourning and harping over what has already gone. All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time. Me? i still cry at funerals. and i think i always will.

If you want to read the book, let me know. It's open for lending.

Be'puzzled

i really do not understand! What is it with girls and shoes and bags!?

Went for my medical appointment today. On the way home, as it was raining, i took shelter at tangs and went back with 2 bags... Ok.. i know i had told myself not to spend.. And i'm pretty ashamed to even write about it here... But strictly speaking i was not spending money... i was using vouchers which i had earlier... So i was not actually shopping. i was just using what i had paid for earlier! i did think not twice, not thrice but 4 times before using them!

First Post of 2008

Thought of writing something big and meaningful for New Year's Day but i did all trivial stuff today... Wrapped books (you see.. i really do have a fetish! well, it is in the hope that i would read them more too). Finished up one of the projects that i was crocheting last week... Sigh... Seems that my stitches still swerve to the right... The handles turned out mismatched... i wonder why... Think i would have to add one more New Year resolution to find out.... Once i find out the reason, i would still have to line the bag, which means... more shopping to buy the cloth for the lining. Hehe.