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Shokudo

Friday, February 29 11:45 PM

Okay. Updates!

Clara's birthday dinner cum Cass' farewell at Shokudo at Raffles City. Hmm, I haven't been there before and if you're just like me, well, it's a Jap-themed Marche.

So yah, pretty much ordering ala carte (not buffet!) and you bill your card at the end of your dinner. It wasn't too bad, nothing to complain la given the low prices of food. Rice bowls were only like what, 6 bucks?

We ate till we nearly exploded and individual bill came only to average 20 bucks? That's really cheap, I think!

Sorry Clara, Kuishin Bo another time k!

This old woman turns 22. Happy Belated!

Cass snipped her locks! Very nice! Makes me want to do the same too!

Or should I rebond it like Ang Si Ling...? Hmm, I just wanna do something.

We were seated just next to the neoprint booth, and although I highly thought we would have snapped a couple, we didn't.

God, we're so disciplined! Hahahaa

Mel and I had rice bowls. Luuuuuuuuurve the egggggggg!

I'm an egg person if you can't already tell! Egggggg!

Each of us had soup too. Mel and I took mushroom, Clara took Clam Chowder.

And Cassie took this. I don't know what you call it.

Oh yea! Seafood soup!

Just a sneak peep into Shokudo for some of you

Gave Clara her present at the end of the evening, and she loves it! Thank goodness. But again, if she didn't like it, Cass chose it.

HAHAHA. I'm such a prick right? I know.

Anyways, the first of the pack has already turned a grand ol' 22. I heard scary stories of how quickly you age after 21.

It almost feels like... from 16 to 18 feels like 4 years each. While after 21, it skips every alternate age. So you only realise when you are 21, 23, 25 and 27.

By 29, you should already be pretty much nursing your third baby so you shouldn't be too bothered about age. You would then say: " Age, puh-leaese. Just a number."

Yes, yes. D-e-n-i-a-l.

Chalet last Sunday was awesome, by the way. Awesome. Pity we didn't go Wild Wild Wet though. Weather wasn't looking great.

Anyways, I got 2 free tickets till 24 March! And I've got Bern who's keen on going with me. We'll somehow psycho Analyn and Max to head down east too. Yay!
P.s. All of them can't swim! Haha But all you do is get wet at WWW. Who actually swims??

Tomorrow will be exciting!
First thing in the afternoon (by the time I wake up, it'll probably be noon), we're heading down to Natas Fair at Expo.

I hope we get something outta there. :) Following which, the routine weekend shopping (altho I know I must stop).

And.......... Sg Flyer in the evening! Can't wait. I will show you guys photos! By midnight tomorrow, Dear and I would be celebrating 18th. W-o-w.

Anyways, Happy Leap Year Everyone! Love to all.

Oh, and Take Care yea! We never know if MSK* is around, somewhere..........

* You guys should know who I'm referring to.

Get over it.

Tuesday, February 26 11:16 PM

I know it's difficult and I'm trying my best to reassure you each time, especially as it draws closer to THE date.

Still, I will get tired one day. You have to get over it soon.

I can't go on listening to you go on and on and on and on about something that nobody can control.

How does it feel having to reassure an anorexic that she isn't fat? Yea? How about 300 times over?
Now I seem more like the one who needs reassurance.

Look, I will try to my best effort to comfort you, should things not go as you would have liked.

I just hope, that you won't hear the echo of your own voice when you turn to me for reassurance one day.

I am fucking tired of repeating myself.

Please, just get over it.

Clara turns 22!

Saturday, February 23 1:13 AM

HAPPPPY 22ND BIRTHDAY CLARA!

LOVE YOU MANY,

NANA

1:00 AM

Before I forget (week has been crazily busy), CONGRATULATIONS Singapore on winning the bid to host YOG!

I feel so proud to be a Singaporean!

I was on my way to meet Dear at Suntec when I happened to be near the huge TV at the Suntec Convention Halls.

As I was on the escalator, the same moment they decide to announce the results for YOG 2010.
The ang moh guy on the TV then flipped a paper over and read (anti-climax-ly), "Singapore!"

Everyone at Suntec cheered loudly, and at that point, my goosebumps stood. Not sure if you know what I'm talking about, but it was the nice fuzzy kind. Like something good happened.

Even as I passed by the Padang on Wednesday and seeing the sea of red gathered there for the results, I kinda knew we were expecting good news.

That's Singapore - Hear us roar!

Those were the days

Friday, February 22 9:50 PM

This is damn funny. I got it in a email Rendy sent.

Hahah, you all gotta see this!

If you were born in the 70s and 80s,

You would remember..........
You grew up watching He-man, MASK, Transformers, Silver Hawk and Mickey Mouse, Ninja turtles, Carebears, Robocop, My Little Pony and Smurfs.

You grew up brushing your teeth with a mug in Primary school during recess time.

You would squat by a drain with all your classmates beside you, and brush your teeth with a coloured mug.

You hated or loved the school nurse (she was either pretty or mean).

You know what SBC stands for.

You paid 40 cents for cartons of Chocolate or Strawberry milk every week in class.

Everyone's wallet used to be the velcro type.

It was cool to have pagers in primary school.

SBS buses used to be non-airconditioned.

The bus seats are made of wood and the cushion were red.

The big red bell gave a loud BEEP! when pressed.

There were still bus tickets and bus conductors would come up to check them.

Envelopes were given to us to donate to Sharity Elephant every Children's Day.

You've probably read Young Generation magazine.

You know who's Vinny the little vampire and Acai the constable.

You know what PETS are and the hidden animals in all the text pages.

You hated penmanship.

Writing lines and caning hands were common, esp if you failed chinese spelling (caning was actually allowed. no shit).

You were there when they first introduced the MRT here. You went for the first ride with your parents and you would kneel on the seat to see the scenery.

Movie tickets used to cost only $3.50.

Gals were fascinated by Strawberry Short Cake and Barbie Dolls.

You learn to laugh like The Count in Sesame Street.

You bought tidbits called beebee (20 cents per pack, 10 cents in MGS), and mamee (30 cents), that had a different sticker in it every time.

You carried a lunch box to school but either threw away the food or brought it back home again.

You watched TV2 (also known as Channel 10) cartoons because Channel 5 never had enough cartoons for you.

Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Famous Five and Secret Seven were probably the thickeststory books you thought you would ever read.

KFC used to be a high class restaurant that served food in plates and had metal forks and knives. (I dont remember this, anyone?)

The most vulgar thing you said was asshole and idiot and THE MOST EXTREME WAS 'chicken pie'...you just couldn't bring yourself to say the hokkien translation.

Catching and pepsi-cola was the IN thing, and twist was themagic word.

Your English workbooks were made of some damn poor quality paper that was smooth and yellow.

You came to school 15 mins before the bell every morning just so you could copy someone's homework.

CDIS was your best friend.

The only computer lessons in school involved funny pixellized characters in 16 colours walking about trying to teach you math.

Waterbottles were slung around your neck and a must everywhere you went.

Boys loved to play soccer with small stones or tennis balls in the basketball court.

Girls played five stones and boys played with marbles.

Science was fun with the Balsam and the Angsana being the most important plants of our lives, guppies and swordtail being the most important fishes.

Who can forget Ahmad, Bala, Sumei and John, immortalized in our minds from school textbooks.

We conducted experiments of our own to get badges for being a Young Zoologist/Botanist etc.

Every Children's day and National day you either got pins or pens with 'Happy Children's Day 1993' or useless plastic files with 'Happy National Day 1994'.

You wore BM2000, BATA, or Pallas shoes.

Your form teacher taught you Maths, Science and English.

You went to school in slippers and a raincoat when it rained, and you find a dry spot in the school to sit down, dry your feet, and wear your dry and warm socks and shoes.

There would be spelling tests and mental sums to do almost everyday (you hated them).

Your friends considered you lucky and rich if your parents gave you $2 or more for pocket mone everyday.

You saw Wee Kim Wee's face in the school hall.

Boys liked catching fighting spiders, earthworms or tadpoles.

Collecting and battling erasers was a pastime for boys.

Class monitors and prefects loved to say, "You talk somemore, I write your name ah!"

You got booked for muddy shoes in class.

There were at least 40 people in one class.

You brought every single book to school, even though there was a timetable.

There was a pro-yo/bumblebee, digimon craze at some point in time.

Randoms

Sunday, February 17 6:38 PM

Just such random and vain pictures of me (again!).

I really can't help it especially when I've been facing the computer working on my IM project for the last 5 hours while the folks are out shopping.

I have such a love-hate relationship with Disney. Yes, the case I'm working on now is on Euro Disney.

It's a miracle I can still crack a smile

The crazily thick books and stacks of notes piling up my room.

My room is in a mess, period.

Anyways, geek is heading for the library at 7pm.

Argh, more joy.

Dad's Bday dinner

3:35 PM

We headed out to Sakura for Dad's Birthday dinner yesterday! Food was good, company was great!

Some photos ahead!

Alvin and Jacq's Multi-shots

Dad and Mum having fun too! Haha

Mosaic shot with everyone in it. That's what my G500 is good for! :)

Warning: Below is a string of multi-shots of Jacq and I.

Another function of our Samsungs.

The evening continued when I met Dear for Jumper. 2 popcorns.

Taken before the cinema lights started to dim

See ya!

Valentine's 2008

Saturday, February 16 1:14 PM

I have tonnes of tonnes of photos from HR retreat that I wanna post, but the photos (courtesy of Joanne) are all so huge, I decided to skip it altogether.

It's so tedious to resize them one by one. ANYWAYS. The retreat was SO fun, by the way.
In case you didn't know, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is congested with monkeys!
Everywhere! Disgusting, but funny!

We took an hour's walk to the quarry and up the hill. Everyone was super beat by then, you have no idea how steep the Bukit actually is.
We decorated cakes and made jewellery lanyard during the activities segment too. By Wednesday night, I crashed out in bed. So damn tired.

Oh yea, how was everyone's V-day? V good? or V bad? Hahaha

For V day this year, Boyfriend and I caught PS I Love You.
The cast consists of Hilary Swank (why her???) and Gerard Butler (King Leonidas from 300, on the contrary, this is a good choice).

Here comes the (harsh) review. If you read the novel, chances are you wouldn't enjoy the movie. And yes, unfortunately I read the novel.

If you didn't, well... you might not mind the movie since the parts where they blatantly cut scenes will not appear so starkly obvious to you.

Giving it some credit, it still has its own funny spills, but nothing memorable. I definitely had more fun with the book, even it was not a motion picture. Haha

Maybe 2 popcorns?

Oh yes, we went Thai for dinner on V Day. Had my nice glass noodles and chicken balls. Nice! Prawn Toast. Yummlicious! Dear had his Phat Thai. (I don't know how you spell that)

Both of us are not entirely big on Vday, which probably shows how pragmatic we both can get. Haha.
Although I secretly admired the ladies in office who had bouquets delivered to them. 3 of my colleagues in my directorate got it, all married! What does that say? Married men are definitely more romantic.
Envious I may be,on second thoughts, I would actually find it quite a waste. Unless when it withers, it breaks down into dollar bills or something useful like a MNG voucher, then maybe. Haha.
Can someone invent that?

So, we decided we won't splurge on Vday, but instead with what we would have potentially spent on this occasion, we used it and went ahead to book a holiday! Yay!

It's not far, but we're going for a good 3 days in March! Hooray! I so need a break.
(I know I don't sound convincing especially with CNY holiday just a week back) Still, spending those 3 days with someone whose company you enjoy can be such a bliss. :)

Now, that was Thursday. On Friday, which was yesterday. I was supposed to have classes la, but because Dad's bday is today and I was running short of time to get him a present. I accidentally forgot about my classes and met Dear to shop for Dad's gift at Suntec.

After an hour, I finally decided to get him a portable DVD player. It's pretty. If you have no idea what's that, it's like a mini laptop, except it only plays DVD, Mp3, CD-RW and stuff. It opens out like a notebook with a screen and a player below.

Extremely compact and handy, we can even mount it on a car when we travel.
When the guy tested for me, Dear was so tempted by its sound and aesthetics to get one for himself too. Hahah

I know Dad has always wanted one of this since a while back, and so I decided to get him what he wanted. Btw, my dad's a very gadget-ty man, so normal shirts and wallets do not do the trick for him.

My 1st choice was a HTC touch, but that was waaaaaaaaaay outta budget. Anyways, my daddy turns 50 today! Time for mini shout-out.

Happppy Birthday Dadddddyyyy! :) Love you!

Can't wait for dinner tonight! Yummmm. (I can hear my weighing scale crack in anticipation)

After getting the gift, we promptly made our way back to the East for dinner and at the same time decided to catch a Friday midnight flick - Juno!

This movie is about teen pregnancy and is sooo adorable. The lead girl, Ellen Page kinda grows on you. She isn't exactly the kind you'll expect to get knocked up, since she acts so 'cool' in the movie, to a certain extent, even tomboy-ish.

Haha, this movie brought chunks of laughter to the cinema. 4 popcorns! Must watch!

Juno (that's her real name in the show), with her stepmum and best friend (she looks more like the one who will be faced with teen pregs) at the gynae's.

Her stepmum later gave the ultrasound technician (also in the pic) a piece of her mind, that was 1 of the funny parts! Hahah

After yesterday's Budget day, I think everyone's now slightly relieved, all the work put in for the last couple of months. Up next would be Budget debate. :)

Okay, that's my updates for now. Have an assignment which is due, like SOON. Catch you guys another time.

Ciao babes!

Tuesday, February 12 11:38 PM

6th day of CNY

Met up with Dear, Nicholas and Corey after work. We went Suntec to catch Kungfu Dunk. (Don't ask me why)

We even had Vietnamese food for dinner. (Again, don't ask me why - BUT I must say it was quite good!)

I'm usually quite neutral when it comes to Jay Chou, but after the movie, I'm this <--> close to being converted as well.
Hahaha. He is cute in his own ways la. I shan't discredit him for that.

And all the guys could ask during dinner were: "Is Charlene the one in the scandal with Edison??"
I trust you guys to imagine the look I gave them.

Hahaha.

Anyway, back to the Jay and his balls. (What are you thinking??)
The show is quite good!
In fact. Boyfriend prefers this movie among all 3 CNY blockbusters. You may have by now realised that I caught all 3 of them. And all of them are in mandarin.

I don't really care, cos I'm getting my PS I Love You this Thursday. Ooooh lala.

Will be heading down to Bukit Timah for retreat tomorrow. I hope it's fun and doesn't rain. It better better not rain.

Anyway, it's a long way there and I'm cabbing down with Siew Pheng, Joanne and GY.

Gonna catch some snooze now.

Jean, I hope this movie review tallies with your sentiments for once! haha

Nights world.

4th Day

Sunday, February 10 3:08 PM

4th Day of CNY

Woke up at noon, no programmes for the rest of the day. Since work resumes tomorrow (SIGH), I reckon I should spend the last of the holiday/weekend prepping for work and class tomorrow.

Let's see what the week ahead has for me.

Monday - New Head (HR) is joining us. Good time to get to know each other and snack on more CNY goodies at work. Hee. Classes follow in the evening.

Tuesday - Work on project. Deadline for International Management is on Sat, 2pm. Holy!

Wednesday - CD Retreat at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. I don't know what to expect. Lots of wildnerness and heat, I guess?

Thursday - Valentine's Day! How are you guys gonna celebrate it? For our 2nd V Day together, Boyfriend and I are gonna catch PS I Love You and have a fabulous dinner in town. Yay. :)

Friday - All too soon again right?? Classes in the evening and weekend beckons again! Not until report is duly submitted though.

Saturday - Dad's 50th Birthday!

Having a chalet on 24th February! More joy!

New Camera!

2:08 AM

3rd day of CNY

We went to Suntec, and guess what! We bought ourselves a brand new camera! Wheeee.
It's the Olympus FE 280. It's damn sleek and pretty!

Guess which colour Boyfriend and I decided on?

Yup! We got the red one!

Our first choice was initially black, since it was more timeless, but they didn't have anymore of black.
We then decided the red one looked pretty good too! And so, we got one.

With our upcoming trips, we decided we need our own camera to capture pictures when we travel too. This way, don't need to borrow from Dad nor use our handphone with not exactly high resolution.

This ultracompact gadget here boasts a 8.0 megapixel detail capturing power and 3 x optical zoom.
Tried it out at the shop, it really is damn sharp. The screen is also pretty wide at 2.5 inch, taking pictures from now would be such a breeze. Yay! :)

I'm so happy! More pictures from now on!

Went for dinner at Carl's, then headed back to Kallang Entertainment Centre to catch Stephen Chow's CJ 7. It's surprisingly good, cos I'm not exactly a fan of his works. But if you are, then it's no wonder for you.

Very touching and funny movie, my tears welled up a couple of times during the whole movie. (MUCH better than the local flick I caught yesterday)
Anyway, the little boy in the show is in fact, a little girl in real life. She is, ADORABLE!!

Go catch it, if you have no idea how to spend your last few days of CNY.

Sigh, speaking of which. Tomorrow is already Sunday. Monday, in fact! It's already 2.33am in the morning.

Why on earth am I still awake?

Out.