Jogging

It is always nice to go for a jog once in a while because it helps to clear my thoughts.

365 Project: Toffee Nut Latte

My friends had raved about this seasonal drink from Starbucks for almost 2 years. I finally tried it today. Quite nice... Good enough for my coffee fix :)

365 Project: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

365 Project: 冬至快乐!

Mum's homemade 汤圆! :)

365 Project: Once a Year

Every year activity...

"You know, you left without saying goodbye. That's not like you, not that I have the slightest idea what you're like." - Warren Beatty

365 Project: Passed!

Woohoo~! I actually managed to scrap pass my Japanese!!!

【那些年，我們一起追的女孩】電影主題曲《那些年》

“人生中发生的每一件事都有它的意义。。。”

I just watched 那些年，我們一起追的女孩 this afternoon. Nice~!

365 Project: Kit Kat

Kit Kat with love from Japan.

365 Project: Sake

It has been years since I last drank sake... The memories it brings back...

365 Project: 5km run

Just completed Standard Chartered 5km Fun Run. Tired~

365 Project: Angry Birds Comes to Changi

Spotted this is Changi Airport... So cute!

365 Project: Share Happy

Feel happier when you share... :)

365 Project: Christmas Tree made of Candy!

365 Project: Durians!

My favourite fruit!

365 Project: Wish Granter

Christmas is coming round the corner. This year F's department decided to do something different instead of the usual Christmas Gift Exchange. They decided to be a wish granter instead. They got a wishlist for kids from those needy families and everyone split them up to get something from the list for them. The budget for each person was supposed to be $15 since that was the amount they were supposed to use for gift exchange. Nick and I decided to chip in for the watches Fred was buying for the kids. Why not right? Give a little for Christmas. After all, Christmas is all about giving. :)

Finally over!

The ROM is finally over! Somethings were done very last min so I am just very happy that nothing went wrong with the whole thing. It seemes that everyone enjoyed the food and service was quite good too. Most important is that everyone enjoyed themselves. :)

Now, I am officially Mrs Tan! lol...

365 Project continue...

I tried to make sure I take a photo a day for 365 Project but I was really too busy to come online to upload all the photos. As much as I loved Blogger App, it does not allow me to change the date of the posting. :S

I missed taking the photos during one period as my uncle passed away recently and we were all busy preparing his funeral wake. Time to restart my engine for 365 Project...

Tomorrow is THE day and I just realised there seems to be tons of things that I have not done yet. lol... I hope everything will turn out fine...

Taj Mahal

I was looking through my old photos and found this photo which was taken when I went to Taj Mahal in March. I like this photo the most amongst all the others taken during the trip. :)

Journey by Corrinne May

It's a long long journey

Till I know where I'm supposed to be

It's a long long journey

And I don't know if I can believe

When shadows fall and block my eyes

I am lost and know that I must hide

It's a long long journey

Till I find my way home to you

Many days I've spent

Drifting on through empty shores

Wondering what's my purpose

Wondering how to make me strong

I know I will falter

I know I will cry

I know you'll be standing by my side

It's a long long journey

And I need to be close to you

Sometimes it feels no one understands

I don't even know why

I do the things I do

When pride builds me up till I can't see my soul

Will you break down these walls and pull me through

Cause it's a long long journey

Till I feel that I am worth the price

You paid for me on Calvary

Beneath those stormy skies

When Satan mocks and friends turn to foes

It feels like everything is out to make me lose control

Cause it's a long long journey

Till I find my way home to you

To you

365 Project: Max Brenner Fondue

I have not had Max Brenner's Fondue ever since I stopped working part time there many years ago. I went back there with Fred, Nick and Linda this evening. Some things changed, but the good old taste remained. Yummy... :D

365 Project: Sky

I saw the setting sun turned the sky into a brilliant orange. Beautiful...

特別的愛給特別的你 - 伍思凱

I was listening to the song on Yes 933 this morning. Ahhh... I'm feeling nostalgic here... I can still remember how much I used to like this song. I can still remember this is the first song I tried to copy down its lyrics. I still can remember the song has alot of chinese characters that I could not recognise as I was only 6 or 7 years old then. I still can remember copying down the lyrics from the SBC magazine. That magazine was the predecessor of i-Weekly. Heh... so many memories... :D

365 Project: Japanese Oral Exam

Having my Japanese Oral Exam soon. this time confirm die liao...

Dermablend Concealer Advertisement

I think this advertisement is super convincing for people to buy their concealer.

Mario

I went to my friend's house to pick up something from her. She has 2 very cute cats which can amuse themselves with every little things. Maybe that's cat's nature. :P

Anyway Mario "greeted" me when I reached her place. He kept going around my legs, attempted to bite me and etc. I told my friend that he has a fetish for legs as he was burying his head in my friend's shoes earlier on. Lol...

365 Project

I mentioned about Project 365 that I read about from Story of Bing the other day. I later found out from Bing that Project 365 or rather, 365 Project, is an international movement. The purpose of 365 Project, is to document a year of ones life by taking a daily photo. This will help one to build a picture of the little day to day things that make their life so special and unique. :D

Knowing myself who is always 3 分钟热 kind of person, let's see how long will I persevere with this. :P

365 Project: Clarke Quay

I have some colleagues coming in from China this week for training. I accompanied them to have dinner in Clarke Quay just now. I always like Clarke Quay. It is one of the few places in Singapore that always seems to be alive. It always makes me feel that Singaporeans are not as dull as we look. We are still a happening lot! :)

365 Project: Coffee Jelly Milk Tea

I love to drink Milk Tea. That is usually my choice of drink whenever possible. :P

Singapore is currently having a Milk Tea craze. You can find a shop selling Milk Tea everywhere. So it is good for me because this means I won't need to hunt high and low for a decent Milk Tea.

Coffee Jelly Milk Tea from Share Tea is my current favorite. I will usually add pearls to my drink too. :P Unfortunately, I still think 4 Seasons do a better job. It is just too bad that I will have to travel all the way to Katong if I want to drink my Coffee Jelly Milk Tea from 4 Seasons. For now, I will just have to make do with the Coffee Jelly Milk Tea from Share Tea. :D

365 Project: Future Home

Ok... I said I want to do a Project 365 too... So here's the first one! :D

Bf and I managed to get a unit somewhere in Punggol. Our house is supposed to be ready earliest by March 2012.

As the flats are constructed in batches, some of the people living in the same area can get their keys by next week. We popped by the area yesterday to kpo abit. Looks nice. I can't wait to get my keys and have my own place even though the cost of renovation will kill us totally! :P

Story of Bing

I was reading through the blog of The Story of Bing just now. It is quite an interesting blog written by a Singaporean who is currently living in South Africa.

A photographer herself, she started a project called Project 365 to document things that she sees everyday.

I would say this is a very interesting idea. How long has it been since we last stop and really notice things around us? Maybe it is time for me to do something like this too... I will try to start my own Project 365 too. :)

Christmas is coming!

It's November already! This means Christmas will be approaching soon! Ha... I always love Christmas because it is during this time when one will feel everyone is very giving! No doubt getting suitable presents for people is a huge headache, I still enjoy the process of giving. Christmas period is also the time when you get all the holidays! :) Looking forward to Christmas! :D

Xmas Tree in Ngee Ann City

End of Year

Without actually realising it, November has arrived. There's only 2 more months left before 2011 come and go. So fast. Too fast.

Work

Work has been especially bad this year. I felt bounded with little room for progress. I had more or less do all that I can and there is nothing left for me to do to be able to progress. There are a lot of frustrations at work, that mainly coming from a peer who watches her drama while working. Revisiting this topic will only make me boil. All I can say now is things with her is better now after I had spoken to my boss and my boss, her. I don't ask for a lot. I only hope things with her will remain as it is now. Most of the time I don't care what is she doing as long as it does not affect me. In fact, this is probably the first time in my life to complain about a co-worker to my boss.

Relationship

Relationship w bf is good for most part. There are arguements on and off but nothing that we cannot sort out between ourselves. We will be getting ROM this month. Everything has been more or less settled. More or less. :P Let's just hope I did not forget anything important to do. Hee...

Money

My plans for saving more money just don't seem to be working out at all. Whenever there is finally some money in the bank, something will always come along and wipe it out. Sigh...

Weight

I told myself that I have to lose weight. I have lose a little weight. Not alot though. For 2011, I really have not idea if I lose more than what I had put on. Lol... I just hope I won't look too fat in my ROM photos. :P

I hope the rest of 2011 will be better for me. Cross my fingers...

Paying Lip Service

Sometimes I wonder what's the point of someone paying lip service. Come on lah... If you are really sincere in helping then you should walk the talk. Don't talk only no action. Seems so nice offering to help do something and in the end only very 敷衍 and do the very minimum. If that is the case, I rather you don't offer. Otherwise I see liao also gek sim.

Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup

Ok... Here's the post in ZQ's famous 猪肝面线. Actually, instead of 猪肝面线, I think it should be better refered to as 腰只面线 lor... Everywhere in the shop you see them having signs of them selling 腰只面线. Whatever it is, the 面线 is supposed to be good since almost everyone is having it.

I eat neither 猪肝 nor 腰只 so in the end I decided to order the 猪肉面线. I ordered a side dish consisting of Seafood Ball Salted Egg Yolk. Although my 面线 had "pon" until the size of 幼面, it is still quite nice. The soup is different from the usual soup that you get outside as they use Black Chicken Herbal Soup. It is a tad spicy but still quite nice. ZQ is obviously in love with it or he will not drive all the way from Woodlands just to eat it. -_-''' I probably won't mind going back again for the 面线. That is if someone is willing to send me home after that. :P

My 猪肉面线 when it first arrived

My 猪肉面线 that has "pon" until the size of 幼面

The Seafood Ball with Salted Egg Yolk

Waiting... Waiting...

I'm blogging now while waiting for ZQ to come... Haiz...

Stupid ZQ wants to eat his 猪肝面线 so I got conned all the way to Kembangan to accompany him for dinner. I can't believe what am I doing all the way here. God knows I don't even eat 猪肝 one lor. *roll eyes*

I was supposed to meet him at 6.30pm bur I was late. Who knows, he's even later than me! I ordered the food first while waiting for him. My food has already arrived but he was still not here yet. Then! It started drizzling. Great! Now I need to eat my mee sua in the rain! *double roll eyes* Luckily the staff found me a seat for 2 on the 2nd level of the shop. If not I will be left waiting for him in the rain w my mee sua which has already "pon" to the size of 幼面.

I will review about his "favorite" 面线 later if I remember...

Happy Birthday to Me!

Time comes and go so fast. I just passed my 29th birthday a few days ago.

My colleagues bought me a birthday cake and sis bought a slice of cake for me as well. I was never a super Birthday must celebrate kind of person. So I merely had dinner with my bf at a Chinese eatery that I like in Taman Jurong and headed home. This is about how I celebrated my birthday. :)

Birthday Cake from Sis

Simple Birthday Dinner :D

Bf bought me a iPod Nano for my birthday! :D I had been considering to get it for a long time. My current mp3 player will fail me anytime soon. I love to listen to radio, even though I have my iPhone, but trust me, iPhone radio app is not the most trustworthy app in e world. IPod Nano is the only Apple product that comes w a FM radio. Haha... So ya, I am v happy with the present. :D

My Birthday Present!

Blogger App has finally Arrived!

There's finally an app for Blogger!!! I had been waiting for e app for the LONGEST time. Afterall, Wordpress has their app a LONG LONG time ago.

Safari on iPhone does not allow me to write in Blogger so I had to depend on Opera. Although I can blog using Opera, it is not the friendliest way for me to blog.

I hope the Blogger app can serve me well. Maybe this means I will blog more in the future as I can finally "blog on the go" now! :)

Itacho, No More

I went to Itacho for dinner with Sis this evening. I had heard of quite good things about the eatery. Especially with the LONG queues whenever I passed by it, I thought there must be something about it. I must try this place one of these days. Prices seem quite cheap too.

What a disappointment. I don't find the food fantastic. Prices seem cheap because they serve most of the sushi by per piece basis. So the prices on the menu is for 1 pc of sushi instead of the usual 2 that we are used to. Their idea of Crab meat Salad is cucumbers + crab stick + Prawn roe. I think I can make that myself easily... *roll eyes*

For that price and quality of food, I think my money will be better spent at Sushi Tei. At least I get a more satisfactory meal. That said, please note that I am not those ah siao fan of Sushi Tei. I am not one of those who swear by Sushi Tei and refuse to eat at other Japanese restaurant.

I am totally clueless why is there a snaking queue outside the restaurant. There are at least 20 odd people waiting in the queue to go into the restaurant when we left the place. There might be something more to this restaurant that what I had discovered so far. Unfortunately, I still think this is probably my first and the last time at Itacho.

Itacho, no more.

Set!

The date is set, place confirmed and we have got the clothes. So yes, I am finally going to get married to my bf. Ha... It took us like 6 over years to come so far...

6+ years is neither long nor short. We had been through a lot to come so far together. We had been through lots and lots of quarrels especially during the first few years of our relationship. We had a lot of happy times together too. It is definitely not easy but through each and every of these moments, we got to know each other more and more. We learnt to compromise to each other.

We have our differences in opinions during the preparation of the event. I had to give in to some of my wants due to budget constraints. He had to make me think in the practical way. Whatever it is, I only hope the day will turn out fine.

All that being said, I think I don't want to have a wedding dinner. Enough problems with just a ROM...

Railway Corridor

I went to walk the Railway Corridor with bf and his friends on Saturday. It is my second time walking along the railway tracks. I did a trek with some people on the railway tracks all the way to Sunset Way many years ago.

I like railways. It always give me a nostalgic feel about it. Makes me feel like reminiscing the past. :P KTM railway is shifting from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands thus they have decided to close the whole place.

The walk was not easy. The rocks on the railway tracks made it even harder to walk. We lost count of the no of shoe soles we found along the way. That shows how tough the walk is. Bf contributed to part of the shoe soles found there. His already very "cui" slippers became more "cui" after the walk.

Someone's shoe sole that we found along the way

We started off the walk from Rail Mall and ended the session at Bouna Vista area. We took 3 hours to walk so far as we walked some, stopped to take some photos, walked some more, stopped to take more photos. Nevertheless, it was a great walk. It had been quite sometime since I last did any kind of "trekking". If this place is going to be preserved, I will definitely be back. Hopefully there won't be so many people then...

Ultimate Ramen Champion 2011 - Round 1

The Ultimate Ramen Champion 2011 is here! 6 famous Ramen stores is in Singapore to set up stores for a year to complete for the title of Ultimate Ramen Champion!

Being ramen lovers, of course my bf and I had to go and try it!. We decided to try one at a time

and will cast our vote after we are done with all of them. :D

Round 1 - Taishoken Mori Soba

Bf works in a Japanese company and one of his Japanese colleague recommended us to try Taishoken. He said that Taishoken is one of the most famous ramen stores in Japan. So off to Taishoken we go as the first stop! :D

We tried Taishoken's signature Mori Soba. Taishoken's Mori Soba is known as Tsukemen in which like soba, its noodles and soup served separately. One will have to take some noodles and dipped into the soup before eating.

I find the soup a bit too salty while bf finds it too sweet. -_-'''' ok... I have a sweet tooth and he prefers salty food, maybe that's why the complete difference in the opinion since I heard that the soup is supposed to be both sweet and salty. Don't ask me how they achieve it. :P We both loved the noodles though. Very springy! Yumz...

I am waiting to find a chance to try Ikkousha which HJ and another friend of mine highly recommended. Till then... :D

Artease Cafe

I think the Bubble Milk Tea craze is back in Singapore again. Is this another bubble that will burst soon? I don't know about it. For now, I am happily trying out the new kid (bubble tea) on the block. :D

Artease Cafe seems to be one of the newest pearl milk tea cafe in town. They have something sort of like a slogan "Life without Tea, is just plain Arse" which I kind of like. lol... I didn't feel that it's tea or pearls are exceptionally good even though it is definitely better than Sweet Talk. But come on... WHICH pearl milk tea can be worse than Sweet Talk diluted milk tea? Kind of hard right? I like Artease's shop deco. Other than that, probably the much shorter queue when compared to Koi's. :P It is still worth a try though. For now, I probably won't purposely go all out of the way to buy it. Maybe only when I am around the area... :)

Transformers 3

I went and watched Transformers 3 with bf yesterday. He had some free tickets from his contractor for some private screening. The movie is ok but I can't help but feel that Transformers 3 is just not the same without Megan Fox. The new actress is ok but I just can't help but notice her sausage lips. :P She kind of reminds me of Cameron Diaz. But her sexiness as compared to Megan Fox is nothing at all lor... Such a pity...

Growing Up

Sooner or later, we all have to grow up and face the real world. I guess I have been naive enough to think that the problem don't exist if I don't think about it. Time to grow up...

Disappointed

I guess I just can't make myself look alright, smile and pretend in front of him and tell him that I am totally alright or not sad at all. After all I have spent time and effort and looking forward to it. Be it that he does have a point in what he said, I just can't help but feel disappointed. I guess in life, you don't always get what you want...

FujiFilm Instax Mini 25

Haha... After a reallyyyyyyyyyyyy long time, I finally got my Fujifilm Instax Mini 25! lol... I considered a very very long time. I hesistated for so long because I know the polaroid photos taken by the camera will fade off sooner or later. But I still like it a lot! Especially when I look alot more skinner in polaroid photos than normal photos. lol... So after considering for a veryyyy long time, I finally decided to set my heart and buy it! Hee...

So this is my new baby! :D

Afterthoughts from Sg Elections

Sg Elections 2011 has come and gone. It came as a whirlwind and have almost everyone in Sg talking about the politics in Sg. Suddenly, it seemed that everyone in Singapore is interested in the political scene of Sg. Like I say, I was never really interested in Sg's political scene but there are some thoughts that I will like to pen down.

This GE has us starting to question about some of the policies and things that we were forced and grow to accept. Issues like Cost of Living, Influx of Foreigners and etc were brought up time and again. Issues like why Hougang and Potong Pasir areas are not getting their place upgraded as fast as other PAP constituencies were brought up. Is it right for PAP to treat opposition party's constituencies in this way? O ya... and how jam packed is the MRTs in the morning peak hours. MRTs in the peak hours are like a giant can of sardines. Everyone is so squeezed and packed. A friend of mine actually tweeted and say he will vote for the MP who dare to take the MRT during the morning peak hour. I definitely second this. One of them should one day, try to take the MRT during the morning peak hour unannounced and try how does it feel to joing the Great Singapore Sardine Time. Only then, will they actually know how we feel and why we were so unhappy about the 50% increase in profit for SMRT.

Singaporeans are famous for being complain kings and queens. We complain about practically everything. Maybe this is why PAP never take it seriously when we complain about the rising cost of living, the almost unaffordable HDB flats, fare hikes and etc. They know that we will complain and the LL have to accept it. There's nothing we can do about it once PAP says that the decision has been finalised.

This year GE sees PAP only getting 60% votes from Singaporeans. The rest of the 40% voted for the opposition. It is probably time for PAP to wake up and realised that Singaporeans are not happy. They should stop bluffing themselves and think that everyone in Sg is happy with all their policies and etc. PAP have to realise that what we want is more than the upgrading carrots that they dangled in front of us. There are more things than that which is important to all of us.

PAP should really rethink about the GRC system. One can clearly see from Facebook how unhappy everyone is about Tin Pei Ling becoming a MP because she was fortunately in the same GRC as GCT. If not, she clearly will not stand a chance at all. Come on lah... Nicole Seah can speak much better than her. Definitely more convincing too. Some people say that it is because Nicole Seah is from the media industry but so? If you know that you will be coming out to be elected as an MP, you should jolly well be prepared and learn how to conduct yourself in public. "I don't know what to say" is hardly the thing for a future MP to say. How can Singaporeans trust her to fight for us? The GRC system caused George Yeo to be out of the Parliament. What a pity. Is it worth having having a GRC and end up having Tin Pei Ling in the Parliament and losing George Yeo? I think not.

When I voted that day, it was for the future of Singapore. Be it that PAP has apparently done a good enough job in my neighborhood, I still think it is important for an alternative voice to exist in the Parliament. Singapore will never have democracy if 85 out of 87 seats are held by the ruling party. As much as the opposition have to say, PAP can ignore their little voice if they want. The time has gone when there are only 2 small voices trying to fight for all of us. The next 5 years will be crucial for PAP to prove to all of us that they are willing to hear us. If not, I have no doubt that results of Sg GE 2016 will shocked PAP even more.

A new era has arrive. I wish the 6 new Opposition MPs all the best.

Sg GE 2011

I have never been very interested in Sg's politics. Like what I once said to my colleague before, there is no such thing call politics in Singapore. How do you call it politics when there is only a parliment in which 85 out of 87 seats belong to the ruling party? The opposition party have no say at all if the ruling party wants to propose a policy. Sg should be call a monarchy instead of a democratic country. Why monarchy instead of communist? Go figure... :P

This GE made me think about alot of things. Alot of things that I, as a Singaporean, will like to see change in. As much as I think the ruling party has definitely help Sg become what it is today, it is not perfect. No matter what, I am still thankful for them. Thankful for how safe and secure Sg is today.

Today is the polling day. I had made my choice. A choice that I hope will be able to help Singapore progress even further. Let's hope this GE will help to change some things.

Disgusting Public Transport System in Singapore

Singapore has a disgusting "public" transport system that actually allows the company to make 50% profit in Q4. Hello! It's "public" transport that we are talking about?! Why is it allowed to make so much profit at our expense?

The worse thing is we pay so much for our "public" transport, why am I still being squeezed like a pack of sardines in the MRT and bus every morning when I go to work? Their profit is at the expense of us being squeezed like a pack of sardines. WTH!

Updates

I realised I have been super duper lazy this year. I am averaging 1 post a month since the start of 2011. :P Ok ok... some updates..

India
I made a trip to New Delhi in March for a tradeshow. I was basically there to be a vase. If I am deemed pretty enough for that. :P

The tradeshow was quite good even though there are less people that what we had in a similar tradeshow in China last year. There was more quality customers compared to quantity that we had then.

I managed to visit Taj Mahal with 2 of my colleagues. It is a magnificent building. I may go back again if I have the chance if not for the long long drive up. :S

Work
There was some unhappiness at work. I just have to keep telling myself that I did all I can. There is nothing much else that I can do. People can think what they want of me but I maintain that I am not wrong. However, no matter what I feel, I do feel wronged... :(

House
I just managed to get my flat! After many many many tries of balloting for the BTO, we finally managed to get a flat. Even though we did not get the ones that we wanted, we are still glad that we are finally going to be able to get a place of our own. :) Now we have to start saving for all the renovation and etc... Sigh... I hope all these will work out well...

I can't think of anything else. Will update again soon... :)

The bigger your expectations, the greater your disappointment. After so many times, I had learnt to live without any expectations. Anything can changed so nothing is for sure until the thing happened. If it happens like how it is supposed to, good. If not, since I have no expectations, I no longer feel disappointed. Life goes on... Move on...

Grr... I never seem to learn my lesson. Stupid Opera on iPhone is simply not trustable when trying to post a post on blogspot! I had to rewrite this post again! :(

Plans for 2011

Muay Aerobox...
Suddenly after the hectic 2009 & 2010, I am left with more time on my hand to know what to do with. I took up Muay Aerobox with an Adv. Diploma classmate of mine. It was quite siong actually so it is lucky that I have someone I know to go through it with me. :P

India...
I am scheduled to go to New Delhi for a tradeshow sometime in March. I suggested to them maybe they will like to let the new girl go instead since I had been to 2 tradeshows before. However, my dotted line boss thinks that he will prefer me to attend it as the other girl is still new. If I going to New Delhi, I will definitely make a trip to go Taj Mahal since it is supposed to be quite near. I had heard stories of how magnificent the building is so since I'm already there, I might as well go. Bf may accompany me, if not maybe sis will go or worse come to worse, I go myself! :P

Japanese...
I started my Jap classes last Sunday. Very hard to catch up even when I am still at my first lesson!!! Everyone else in the class seems to know some Japanese before we start, so it makes it even more scary for me. :(

Meet ups...
The rest of my time now is mainly spent on meeting up with old friends. Not many, just a few whom I am close to. :) It is good to be able to talk to them like we did not lose touch for so long.

Red Bombs...
2011 is a year of marriage. I have received like 4 invitations even before 2010 ended. I know one of my cousin is planning to get married this yr too so that will make it 5. I suspect there will be more to come...

o~! Happy Chinese New Year! May the rabbit year brings good health and wealth for all of us! :)