I had a fantastic day today with steph..hahah..its been such a long time that I really let down my hair, but today, both of us were just mad, making lame jokes and laughing hysterically..and travelling all the way to Bukit Timah from school for food.

First stop was at Island Creamery located at Serene's Centre which is opposite Adam road market. I heard about this place from Swi(thank u for recommending it gal!) and we had quite a bit of adventure finding the place, not knowing exactly where is it. And on the way, I came upon this treasure of a place called Tierney's Gourmet, which is actually a pretty small supermarket selling, well yeah, gourmet food. All sorts of lovely sausages and the likes. There were also othe chocolates and biscuits and all. I was so excited when I saw the place, and we just had to go in, though all I bought was a box of Nestle Hot Chocolate-Double Chocolate Meltdown. It tastes just as its name inplies. Oh yeah, I digressed. Anyway, the ice-cream place is a little nondescript place which you would not have noticed had you not known its there. Its really a gem of a place. They have interesting flavours like Teh Tahrik, Horlicks, Bandung, Pulau Hitam, Kahlua latte, burnt caramel etc... We tried Teh tahrik, kahlua latte and burnt caramel. I tell you, they were delicious, especially the teh tarik one which tasted exactly like the real thing, just in ice-cream form. At the price of $2.50 or $4 for a double scoop, it was really worth the trip.

After that, we had trouble deciding where to go for dinner, and in the end decided to go Beauty world food centre for my much missed Almond cream which incidentally was sold out :( . But...I discovered another treasure, which is a stall called Top One Hand- made noodles which has the best dry handmade noodles(gan lao mian) I have ever tasted. Its fiery hot and comes with a special black sauce, with mushrooms and clams. But nothing else mattered other than the sauce..seriously kick-ass, and I had to wait pretty long for it, so I guess it's pretty popular. And I really savoured every bit of it, though I had what you would call bee stung lips after eating it, so spicy was it. So be warned, unless you can take super spicy stuff, do keep away...hahah..

So satiated now....burp

I survived the week, just barely though. It was one of the most stress filled and draining week of my life, and I am just glad its over.

The worst day has got to be thurs, where I had to wake up at 5.30am, facilitating at ACS Barker for two classes of sec 1 kids, where they were one of the rowdiest bunch of kids I had ever come across. Adorable? Sure, but also very hard to control. When I walked out of the place, I felt like all my energy had been sapped out of me and that I had screwed up big time, which I had. Good for my morale, I am sure, especially since I had to rush back to school for a presentation, and you know how much I hate presentation. I hate the feeling of butterflies in my stomach, and right before my turn, my heart was thumping so heart and furious and I was just so tense. And when I got up to speak, my first few sentence were incoherent and intelligible, I don't even recall what I said when I was up there...but phew, it was over soon enough. When I got home, I couldnt do anything else, but I had to do reports for the facilitation, as well as compile results for the evaluation forms.

The next day, the whole cycle started all over again. Waking up at 5.30am for facilitation at CHIJ TP, then rushing down to school for another presentation. Thankfully, it was better on friday, the girls were definitely more well behaved, and the presentation went alright...pheww, the two presentations were two major things that were off my mind. And I could relax a little on friday night.

But come to think of it, I have been relaxing the whole weekend, which is not good cos I havent started studying for my exams yet, like seriously. And yeah, I went to watch The legend of Zorro with steph, it was really a very nice popcorn movie, perfect for a good laugh and enjoyment. Antonio Banderas looks noticeable older than he was in the mask of zorro, but still very suave. And Catherine Zeta Jones is really sizzling hot and voluptuous.

I dragged Dad to Carl's junior for dinner today. Once again, I thought it was really mediocre, though I rather liked the sourdough bacon burger that I ordered. Actually I thought it was rather delicious, with beef patty,bacon, cheese, tomato and creamy mayo, better than the normal sesame bun.Dad wasnt impressed by the soggy beef chilli fries, preferring the crisscut fries(me too!!). After dinner, I felt super full and bloated, cos of the large servings..i hate this feeling..yucks, think I have had my fill of fast food for the whole week..

Now, I still have 3 project writeups to complete....bleah...when can I ever start studying(and enjoying life)...hahah..

Too tired to blog, shall let pics do the talking...

Guys of kaetna 

Me, Jes, Merr, Issy 

What r those two guys doing, and why does Shiang have such a knowing look on his face 

Kaetnians at NYDC 

Me and steph making funny face 

Here's a quick update. Today was the first day of facilitation and it was indeed an experience. I shall not expound in detail about my job experience, hahah..perils of job blogging eh..suffice to say that it was definitely not easy. I felt weird wearing black pants and long sleeved shirtIt was held at Coral sec sch, which is all the way in the east, at Pasir Ris, thus I had to wake up at 5.30am today, but amazingly I managed to jump right out of bed at the first shrill of my alarm clock. Managed to get there on time, which is 45mins before the actual training begins. Oh, the greatest mishap was probably that the soles of my shoes chose to give way then. I wore my mother's shoe cos I knew that my new shoes would give me blisters..sigh..but a very helpful student brought me to some technicle workshop to fix my shoe.

I must admit I am quite clueless about ava stuff and all that, and as it was my first faciliation, I was pretty clueless about things. Luckily, there was a able team of ava students to help me out. It pretty much went on without a hitch and I had fun interacting with the students. I tell you, who needs dieting when you have work, I only managed a cup of coffee with milo from the canteen plus a egg sandwich and I had to walk around the auditorium alot and keep track of the students and all, so food was the last thing on my mind. But the most amazing thing was that after a break, a student actually bought me food from Mac's- fillet o fish and the fish fingers(or whatever its called). I was like whoaho, what did I do to deserve this, but then I guess many things in life is undeserved, and we just receive lor..hahah. But I was really touched, it was my first time and all, and the students were so nice, or at least the majority of them were..

The training ended at 5, and I managed to hitch a ride from the trainer to river valley..heheh, so I got home pretty fast. So now, back at home after a hearty dinner where all I want to do is sleep after a long day, but no, I have a report to do but other sch stuff as well...oh well..

At least I had a very pleasant weekend, meeting the Kaetnians on Sunday at NYDC to celebrate me and merrilyn's birthday. Though many were too busy with school work to come, I really appreciate those who managed to come despite their heavy workload, esp derek, with a term paper due the next day. I enjoyed eating my favourite baked pasta with ham, mushroom and chillies and also the jazzy brownie topped with vanilla icecream. And I got my ipod nano skin..wheee..hahah..no more worries about scratches and also a G2000 clothes voucher, now I can go shop for more long sleeved collared shirt, I have my eyes some striped ones already...heh

And now...back to work..

Me again with a yummy cake that mum bought from Sweet secrets with yummy choc truffle layers and a nice praline crunch and thick dark choc glaze 

Lovely wallet =) 

Me and steph at Moonfish with the tiramisu in front.. 

Another bag from mum..it looks much nicer rite, its so me!!! Its also very small unfortunately 

Big esprit bag from mum...its still not big enough though...heheh 

My new birks...wheee...I so love them.super comfy 

Exam period= chocolate period. The amout of chocolate that I have been eating lately is astonishing. Just today, I swore I would stay away from chocolates, and Yumin had to ask me to meet her at the coop..sigh...hahah. The heart is willing, but the flesh is weak leh.. I came out with lotsa chocolates I polished off the Nestle club dark chocolate with hazelnut creme..yummy, think its new cos I have never seen it before...and Meiji Hi- cacao almond chocolate which was on sale at the coop, one for one. It looked rather like cockroach egg(to be gross), though I have no idea what the actual thing looks like, and have no wish to know..heh. We sat down at the steps at the forum and just chitchatted..

I had Cg today, thus I had to hang around in sch until 6. My classed ended at 3, but I had another proj meeting until 4 plus. I loved this proj,as opposed to the other one.. I guess its the ppl who make up the group that counts, and the ideas just flowed freely and everyone had fun in planning what to do, and dividing the workload was easy too..

Cg was great. I always enjoyed the time of sharing, though I don't have a lot of things to share.But its just great to fellowship and all.. after that, there was another mini bday celebration for me...hahah..the cake which was from Prima Deli was surprisingly delicious. It was a peppermint chocolate cake- chocolate sponge cake with layers of peppermint cream. And though I am not a big fan of sponge cakes, I liked it alot cos the sponge was light and moist and the cream complemented it really well..

I havent really talked about my bday, and I must take this chance to say it now. hahah..It was amazing.. I got all my birthday wishes answered though I didnt ask for a single thing. I got the ipod nano earlier on, and my much desired birkenstocks from dad, 2 bags from mum, a lovely Pierre Cardin wallet from steph..

Dad finally got to meet steph for dinner on sun. He treated us to Moonfish at Millenia Walk. The food was passable, though their tiramisu is simply to die for. It was quite hilarious cos steph was super nervous before meeting dad, and dad could tell...and he patted him on the back and told him to relax and I just cracked up at that. And after that, they hit it off really well, talking about serious stuff(guys...hahah), but which I am thankful for la...that dad approved of him, saying he was nice, sensible young man and all *makes face*...hahah

The week passed super duper fast, I am kind of dreading next week though..God give me strength to survive...

I am turning into a monster. A black faced scowling mean monster. I have project meeting later, the thought makes me just want to... Can I just do the whole damn thing by myself and just write my name and heck care the other inert members. I am normally not so difficult to work with, but I don't know why, they just get on my nerves...

And I wonder what happened to all my friends. Sometimes when I am alone in sch, I just feel too antisocial to call ppl up for lunch or smth. Is this the 'friendless' part of NUS ppl warned about, different modules, different ppl and you don't see your old friends anymore, but you know they are out there, and you are just not a part of it. But then again, I didnt make a conscious effort to keep in contact. So if I do feel left out, its my own fault and nobody else's.

I really should stop blogging, I am not making sense anymore, even to myself

And nope, I didnt really snap out of my lethargy. Its strange isnt it, the more work I have to do, the less I want to move my butt, figuratively speaking. Suddenly felt quite depressed, though I have no reason to, but then again, its beyond reasoning, isnt it? I havent been able to concentrate probably, nor focus when I am doing work. And when I look at the piles and piles of things, I just wanna give up and call it a day..and the feeling is so awful, the naggy feeling that just wont go away, but yet I am still not moving...

Well, did a little bit of work today at Orchard lib with steph, I rather like the place, though its pretty cold and its rather hard to get seats, especially during this period. I adore their ice-blended drinks too. Figured I needed a treat today, and ordered a hazelnut coffee iceblended. Though there wasnt much of a coffee kick, it was delicious. And I liked the cookies and cream milkshake that steph ordered too, so much so that I drank alot of his, and went to buy another cup...and soft tender nestle toll-house cookie, the mother of all chocolate chip cookies, a day for indulgence. And I shopped around for long sleeved shirts for my the facilitating thingy, which I didnt manage to find. What I managed to buy was this cute little pointy shoes from Charles and Keith cos I have to wear covered shoes for facilitating, no slippers, sandals or flip flops. I bought the cream coloured one with pink rims which looked awfully sweet. I wore it immediately to sort of 'break it in' for next week and before long, I got blisters all over..sigh..really, thats why I hate wearing shoes. Oh well, hopefully I would get used to it soon..

I think my blogging is still rather incoherent now, but I am beyond caring already..going to bed now..still feeling horrible about my unproductivity..

I have a horrible confession to make...I skipped both my lecture and tutorial today. Feeling rather guilty now...but when my alarm rang at 6.30am this morning, I simply felt incapable of moving an inch, much less getting out of bed. In my 1min of reasoning, I decided that I would fall asleep in lecture anyway, and thus promptly turned off my alarm and when back to bed, and woke up at 8.30am to shout at my dog who was barking shrilly outside, I simply couldnt understand why she must do this every morning without fail, guess today I was more irritable than usual. Tutorial? Forget it, I didnt manage to complete or rather do the tutorial and I have no wish of getting slammed early in the morning, especially when I was not feeling exactly clear headed.

Didnt have a good sleep last night, it was fraught with dreams that didnt make any sense at all, not that I can remember, just vaguely that I dreamt about an awful lot of things, which might have affected the quality of my sleep cos I am feeling very lethargic now, don't feel like doing anything or going anywhere. Which might explain why my morning has been so unproductive despite the many things screaming for my attention.

I slept pretty late last night. It suddenly dawned on me that exam is exactly a month away, then I started stressing about everything and especially next week. 2 presentations, 3 work assignments(I am starting work as a facilitator for High Achiever's training agency next week). As I have no idea what to expect, I am feeling rather apprehensive and wondering whether I was handling more than I could manage. Plus the last of my group project is due in 2 weeks. And I wasnt exactly productive last nite as well...probably feeling rather burnt out...

I think that my entry today is rather incoherent and probably full of gramatical errors. I am just plain rambling off my mind..sigh..and I dunno why I am so clumsy lately, scalded my hand last week, and though its healing now, its itching like anything. And I banged my knee hard against the sharp edge of a table yesterday and I have difficulty climbing up and down the stairs...hope the fog in my head clears soon...

Just realized something, I think I screwed up my test big time. You know the kind where all the answers seem possible and you have no idea which to choose because they all look the same to you. Its a MCQ test by the way. And I only just started studying last night. And I spent the better half of my night wasting away. Yup, wasting is a good word, cos I didnt do anything at all. Then when you have to cram 4 lecture notes worth of things in, everything just starts to go haywire.. sigh, and thought I would have learnt my lesson by now. But yesterday, was a horrid night.I just couldnt get anything done.

The end is nearing soon. I mean the end of the semester. This is the period where everyone is most busy with projects and assignments and all and it would climax with the exam and then it would be the holidays. On reflection, its been a good semester. I have religiously attended almost all of my lectures and tutorials, and pretty much enjoyed them. And I have no essays to submit this sem, apart from projects and more projects, which is a blessing cos I hate writing essays. True, I do love writing, blogging and all. Remember how I used to get high marks for writing back in secondary school, used to love writing stories and all,got A1 for english, and then it all fell apart in JC and I got a lousy b3 for GP. And for my previous assignments in Yr 1 for political science, south-east asian studies and all, I got really crappy grades. And till then, I think I have never quite recovered from that 'trauma'...hahah..quite silly actually cos a university student is expected to be able to write well, and an arts student no less.

Ah well, enough reminiscing..gotta get started on all my backlogged stuff. I have a whole lot of things to do, but its always hard to get started. And I am easily distracted. Right now, I am into this foodblog thingy, I have at least 10 sites bookmarked and when i am bored, I just love to go look at recipes and pictures of food. And I love to look at cookbooks too, especially the baking ones. My faves are How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson..oh man, her recipes and pictures are fabulicious, and Baking with Julia by Julia Childs...maybe I should just drop out of school go be a pastry chef...hahah..just kidding, just kidding..

Sometimes don't you just wish you can stop time in its tracks
When you are studying for an exam, and you never seem to be able to reach the end
Or when you are rushing for a project
Or just plain buried by work
Don't you just wish to freeze time when you little toddler brings you much joy instead of growing up to be a rebellious teenager
Or when you are in a relationship, don't you just wish to forever be in the honeymoon period, where you are swaddled in the glow of love and everything seems rosy and nothing else seems to matter
Or when you are having the time of your life, you just wish time would stop and let you savour the moment
But in the blink of an eye, its gone
So fleeting is it
Time waits for no one
Trickling on and on
And Life goes on...

I received the most amazing 6th month prsent from Steph today. Before our date in the evening, he came up to my house, to deliver a mysterious looking box and urged me to open it. I opened it to reveal two huge black cards, inside were filled with chocolate. What he did was to write a sort of letter and filled in some of the words with different chocolates eg : lets put on our snickers and fly like a dove. So he replaced the words with a mini snickers bar and a dove chocolate respectively. The rest of the letter is private content, heh. But anyway, I was really touched by how much effort he had put in for the present. How he had to go around sourcing for chocolates and also to come up with such a creative letter. I got all sorts of chocolate like timtam,mars,violet crumble,cadbury,dove, willy wonka and many many others that would last me very long. In other words, a large variety of chocolates. Plus inside the box were filled with rose petals(plastic, but nontheless still made me go awwwww). Really lovely present, not just the chocolates, which are secondary, but how much effort he put into it and also his creativity.

Feeling very blessed. We had dinner at Country manna, then desserts at Cedele where they have the most amazing blueberry hazelnut cheesecake,moist,rich and flavourful. And then our favourite walk near my house.....

Going to zzzz now...soooo sleepy. And oh yeah, my haircut turned out great. Nothing special, but suits me just fine

Once again, its been a week since I last blogged. Full of excitement and happiness. Everything is so tangible, is it not? You can be happy one moment, and sad the other. When I am happy, I feel top of the world and ready to conquer everything, and basically just feel good. When I am in the blues, the world just seems so bleak and I just want to ignore eveything and everybody and escape into my own world. Luckily, I am happy most of the time and untroubled. It comes from being optimistic about things and a happy go lucky attitude and generally being easily satisfied with things. My catchphrase, among many others is 'its no big deal'. I am generally not concerned with nitty gritty things. In a way, that could be construed as bad because it means having low expectations of things. I have often fallen out, or rather, have disagreements with my dad because of this. He is quite a demanding person, while I am laidback(or bochap),thus when there is difference in attitudes, there is bound to be conflict,and conflicting views lead to disagreements. He would often scold me about little things, and flare up over very minor things, and often, I just can't see why he has to get so worked up. Most often, the cycles go like this, he would scold me for some things that I have done, I would just let him say whatever he wants, cos there is no point in arguing if he cannot see my view. He would give me the cold treatment, and I would just ignore him until he 'comes around'. I find it very hard to appease people who are angry or pacify them. Perhaps in a way, I am kind of scared of conflicts and generally avoid it. But hey, I do have my tempers too. You know what they say about dormant volcano's erruptions. They take a long time to errupt, and could be considered extinct, but when they do. Man, is it a sight to behold.

But anyway,I think this cold treatment stuff is bad cos its having an adverse effect on me. After all, if both my parents does that to me, I have to 'acclimitaze', right. But it is really not a good way of dealing with people. Coming back to dad, I have always been in awe of him, and maybe in a way afraid of him as he has always been the disciplinarian. I remember all the bruises and terror from when I was young. Of course, it has long changed since then, I am in a way closer to him than mum and he is my also my confidant, when I choose to share stuff. However, he is still very much quick tempered and autocratic. He orders me about and is always flaring up at me, which I both resents, but I have no choice since he is my dad. But I am just thinking that after getting that kind of treatment for so many years, I am not about to stand for that from anybody else...

Hah, I have just managed to write a whole long passage when all I wanted to blog about was some lighthearted stuff. Gee, I just spent about an hour on this when I have so many other things to do. Oh well, guess sometimes its good to reflect about things and be able to voice them out. But hey, must be careful of what I blog lest I get into trouble. The blog is not a private space(I never thought it was anyway), but I find the thought of getting into trouble over blogging just a little too extreme. And teachers actually have so much time and energy to read blogs and punish students for it.

Going for free haircut later, promo by cleo mag..heheh..no, nothing radical like the last time. And probably doing a little retail therapy. I do feel rich now, from my tuition money and some birthday angpoh money given in advance. And I do think I deserve a treat from working so hard..hahah..and also to buy myself a present mah...heheh

I am very happy today.
I am very happy cos stephen is back from aussie
And he brought back lots of candies and chocolates
I am very happy cos I spoke up quite alot in tutorial today
And thats quite an achievement for me
I am very happy cos we finally finished our socie project amidst mad rush for time
Stike 1 off the list, still have 4 more pending.
I am very happy cos I finally managed to eat the warm chocolate cake at Bakerzin
And it was really out of this world, albeit a little too small
And I received an early birthday present
A clutch bag from esprit *grinz*
Thanks girls, you all are the best
I am very happy and satisfied girl today.. =)

Cant believe I just spent one over hour a stupid maths question that I brought home from my tuition kid because I couldnt solve it at that time and I wouldnt admit defeat. And the sweet joy of victory after solving it is unbeatable. Haha, and I just called him up to explain to him over the phone and he understood. Am I a good teacher or what? Hehe. Maybe I do like maths after all...Oops havent started on my essay yet...sigh

Phew..had about 3 hours of tuition today, from 4-6.50 and no OT, hahah...cos my student's exam is next week, and I guess he finally got the exams jitters and started asking me alot of questions. It was alright la, I didnt mind staying back to help him, but 3hours of talking and thinking maths was pretty draining...so I just stoned all the way on the 45mins bus ride home. I would also be tutoring his pri 5 sister starting from next week, I think, as his mother needed a tutor urgently and I happened to be available. Just hope she isnt expecting miracles as I told her honestly that I didnt have any experience teaching pri school kids and did not know the syllabus at all. But it would be good for me as I need the extra money..hahah...was walking through orchard on sat alone and was attracted by a sale at isetan, the mad house kind that I hate, but i liked the brand, which was surfbay and forever orange, thus I went in and bought a skirt and a top without trying as the queue for the dressing room was too long and I was in a hurry. And I realized at home that the skirt was kind of snug at the hips and a teeny bit on the short side. But oh well, I rather liked it cos it looks somewhat like a tennis skirt, just hope that it passes the parental censor. Anyway I thought that I had exercised remarkable self control cos there were so many other things that i wanted to buy but didnt buy..eg dangly earrings and long chunky necklace that is so in vogue now. And other skirts and tops and short shorts...arghh..dun get me started. I havent shopped in ages, other than the two impulse buys.

Anyway, i digressed. By the time I got home, I was starving and did not have the energy to cook anything other than instand noodles which never tasted so good before. And I slurped up everybit of the noodles and the soup. Burp...

And now I have to 'pia' essay for my proj and study for a test on tues and start on another proj..yawnnn...

State of nirvana? After tasting the rum balls...hahah... 

Satisfied after all the chocolates.. I can go to sleep in the super comfy couch now.. 

If ever there were a thing such as chocolate overload in my vocabulary, this is it. I went to the chocolate buffet at the Fullerton today. It was an early birthday treat from Brennan as he is going to Australia soon for 2 months. I feel so high and full from all the chocolates now..

Before that, we had quite an adventure getting there. Brennan drove his mum's yellow beetle which was super cute and we actually got lost on the roads cos of all the wrong turnings and we took about 1hr to get from my house to fullerton due to the traffic congestion and wrong turnings, and reached at about 8.15,just nice to tuck into all the goodies...and all the waiting made me build up quite an appetite as well as a sense of anticipation for whats to come.



The sight of all the chocolates were enough to make me go wow, plus the first thing I saw was the chocolate fountain and the aroma of it was indeed enough to make me drool.

I ate so many things that I felt so super full from it all. Think I would have to lay off chocolates for a while. But it was indeed a wonderful experience, a definite must try for all chocolate lovers out there,it would definitely not disapppoint. For more pics and review on the buffet, check out my Foodblog