Happily Ever After

My 3rd Valentine's Day with Jun Wen

2012-02-17T01:39:00.001-08:00

Jun Wen is currently in Taiwan with his army pals! Till 23rd Feb. In the meantime, I get to stay at home, handle some HDB documents, pay my bills, update my bank book, buy belated V Day present (I haven't buy!), have more time to blog and also take a breather from his parents.

My colleagues found out about my blog! I refused to give it to them but they found out anyway. Yea, I didn't give it to some of my friends but they googled it and found it out too. Lol. I have nothing to hide but I was just embarrassed to let people I just knew know abit more about me. But am still glad that people still read my blog. Lol.

Valentine's Day 14 Feb 2012!
Celebrated my 3rd one with Jun Wen. :D
We didn't know where to go initially on the morning of Feb 14. Lol. And since Dong Jing told me she was going to a restaurant on the hill top of Sentosa via a cable car, I thought of dining at Sentosa too. Then I thought of the Boardwalk. We always walk to Sentosa via the Boardwalk and always wanted to try this dining place by the riverside. :D

However, Simba said it only has cakes, desserts and wines. Hence, he went ahead to start calling up restaurants but they were fully booked. Oops! Haha.

And so, when I finished work, he was already in Orchard and scouted for somewhere to dine at!
He brought me to the Hard Rock Cafe. Was very satisfied with the atmosphere and everything. The portions were so big that we couldn't finish them. No wonder many Caucasians were there to fill their stomachs!

As we didn't reserve any seats, we were sent to the bar to wait for a table.
Meanwhile we took photos of the place!
I was bit disappointed that Simba didn't wear more formal that day. Lol. He said he was on course lately and so there wasn't a need to dress up for work. And if he turned up for the course in formal clothing, everyone else would stare at him weirdly. He then went on to say his polo tee is from Lacoste, while pointing to the crocodile logo.

At the bar top.

My turn to have a photo taken. My background was really nice. The stairs made everything so elegant.
But there were too many people walking behind me, or up and down the stairs. So there was a shadow of a man passing by. Lol.

Took another shot. But a man was standing at the steps waiting for some friend. Lol.

And finally! No one behind me!

The inside of Hard Rock Cafe. Very guitar themed.

He made a few funny faces but I decided to just post one. I am so nice I know!

Soon we were given a table. We were so starved since it was already 7 30!
Service wasn't so good but we understood that it was a busy day for the waiters. Valentine's Day is the day with the most income for Pastamania! :D

And my gift from him! He told me he didn't have time to buy but he lied. I knew something was wrong when a few days before he was out at the money changer's and took few hours to come back home.

The ribbon required some skills. I tried tying it back after I opened my present but the ribbon became unsymmetrical. Lol.

I got him a terrarium which I bought from my friend Justin!
http://gift-spiration.blogspot.com/
Plants to put on his office desk.

How to care for your terrarium:
1. Check every couple of weeks to see if your terrarium needs water. Feel the soil to see if it is dry and add water if it is.

2. If your terrarium is closed, take off the top at least once a month to air it out. If you see lots of condensation or have added too much water, leave the top off until it has had a chance to dry out.
3. Pull off any leaves that show signs of yellowing or damage and prune plants if they grow too large.
4. Don’t fertilize your terrarium because you don’t want to encourage growth.

Very easy right! If u like it, I will help u order from him! For the items that are sold, he can do a pre-order for u. :D

That was part one of Simba's present by the way. I didn't buy other presents as I was cooped up by work. :D

I asked him why he chose Swaroski over other jewellery shops and he said it was simply because it has a swan logo and he likes swans. Lol.

The name of the pendant is Ties of Love Violet Pendant.
(I went to the website and found its description: True to its name, this pendant features a purple heart in Violet crystal with a delicate rhodium-plated ribbon wrapped on top. Hanging on a rhodium-plated chain, these romantic symbols represent a special bond - strong yet delicate.)

The pendant changes color. When I first opened the box, itwas pink. I wore it and when I looked at it through the mirror of the washroom, it turned silver. And after sometime, it turned purple.

After about 15 minutes, our food finally came!
I ordered cheese marcoroni with chicken and bread. Lol. Sinful treat!

I let Simba take a photo of his own food, and told him not to disappoint me. But he did. LOL. He thought this photo was awesome!

I wore it. A gush of emotions filled me. (Have been down recently, and emotions seemed to be stronger than before.) I felt hot tears. I felt so touched. I mean, we just went to Langkawi and I told him to treat the air tickets as my gift. He spent $1,100 on them, but he still went on to get another gift for me. And he is always punctual in getting gifts, whether it is Valentine's Day, my birthday, Christmas... But I wasn't as punctual. I remembered a few times that I didn't get him any at all.

Ever since he started working, he hasn't spend a single penny on himself, but he bought me a camera, a Braun Buffel bag, and now a necklace. He said he wanted to get a PS3 game to reward himself, but till now he can't bring himself to buy it.

Thanks Jun Wen for the great and overwhelming V Day!

We then walked around, searching for a bar to have some drinks. Then I thought of the German Bar I always wanted to try drinks at. And we took bus down to 313.

We saw this engraving on the bar on the pavement opposite 313. Thought it was special!

Then at the Brotzeit German Bar.
We used the check-in function of Facebook for the 2 places we went to that day. If u saw me check in in Facebook, it was always Jun Wen who asked me to. And he would ask me not to tag him, so that it doesn't seem that he uses Facebook. It's puzzling to me why he must keep a low profile in FB. Is he a celebrity or what?

There was a wide range of Paulaner Beers to choose from. :D
I almost couldn't make up my mind about what to drink.

We also had two scoops of ice-cream. Only 3 choices of flavour were given to us. Vanilla, chocolate or chocolate chip. I was initially by the limited choice. But when we ate them, we found that they tasted kind of different from the normal Vanilla and Chocolate Chip. They were sweeter and had a special nice scent. Cool!

Lol! His face was warm and red after the drinks. When I told him that he might be mistaken of being a drunkard after being rejected of a date after sending me home, he insisted that I send him home instead. Lol. And this was how he reacted when I said no. So sad.

Emotional Week + Langkawi Part One

2012-02-16T20:44:00.000-08:00

It's been sometime since I last wrote an emo entry, so here is one.
I am emotional, really emotional lately.

We booked our DBSS flat #09-565 at $551,000. Our flat would be ours once we signed an agreement at the Lawyer's Office 2 months later. We have given a 5% deposit, and his dad and mum began regretting this decision. The forfeit of rejecting the flat after this booking date is $6,000.

After that booking date, although afraid of what the future may hold for us in terms of finance, I felt really ecstatic. I wanted to post on Facebook my new address! :D

Until...

His uncles and aunts began questioning our ability to pay for the flat. And his cousin started to flood his phone's inbox, saying that she planned and said we would have a hard time paying for it.

His parents doubted us too. And day after day, his mum started to warn him against it, he had to take the pressure of his relatives.

We were coerced into discussing it again today. His dad was upset that we didn't tell him our big decision of buying the flat, and why we didn't make that decision together. They only knew about it when we brought them to the showflat a few days before the booking date. U know, the way I was brought up was quite different from how Jun Wen was. His parents hope for alot of communication and transparency within the family. Before he makes any major decision, his parents would like to have him discuss with them first. My parents hope for me to be independent and build our friendship based on trust. I make my own decisions and they support them. I didn't know what it was like to have parents concerned about my decisions.

My parents always give me lots of freedom. They are the most easy going parents. I was brought up in an environment where I make my own decisions, make mistakes and learn from them. My parents give me support for whatever I do. I told them I might cancel my application and they, especially mum, were infuriated. Okie, maybe not infuriated but I saw some strong emotions in her a she spoke. Lol. Again, they gave me their support. :D

Facing all the pressure from his relatives, Jun Wen wasn't afraid intially. He told me that we were almost there in getting our own apartment, and we shouldn't give up halfway. I could tell that he really likes it so much.

With time, we were pressed to give up our stand. His relatives said we were crazy and foolishly courageous since we just started working and chose such a expensive flat. Words hurt.

I know he took a genuine liking to the house. I had my doubts but I trust that if he believes in us, we can make it. And I believe in him. I trust that his decision is a good one. I believe in working hard together to achieve something. I thought that parents always want us to study hard, work hard for our future.. But why, after we have studied so hard, they want to stop us from buying a more furnished house? I thought this future that we share will be bright enough to let us get something we like. I thought they wanted us to work hard so that we work harder to afford better stuff next time. Now remind me, what is the point of working hard all this while? What do we aim for when we work hard? Shouldn't it be a better standard of living?I dunno now.

We really had fun at Langkawi and we came back, celebrated Valentines' Day and back to reality. I was pretty affected by it. I told Simba that we should give up the flat, wait a few more years and use our own money and CPF to buy something cheaper, as they wished. We shouldn't go against their will and not have their blessings. If not, this will never end. There will be endless unhappiness and friction, and no ultimate decision. Maybe they agreed today and they object tomorrow. Maybe they regretted after 2 months when we signed the agreement at the lawyer's office, and we will not lose $6,000 but $27,000.
I saw an instant disappointed response from him. His face turned red, and that brought tears to my eyes.

I always want to marry early. I think of my dream wedding, think of the prefect wedding dress I'm going to wear, imagine the feeling of being the happiest on my wedding day... I look forward to preparing for my wedding. Now, if we were to only apply for a flat a few years later, I will be 30+ when I really get married. :(

We may not always make the best decisions, but we hope for support in this "bad" decision. His dad and brother considered the factors and have given us their support. Now, we are left with his mum.

We are not materialistic.
I don't need a fancy apartment.
I just need someone whom I can grow old in it with.
Hence, if we can't get everyone to agree on it, I would choose to give it up.

This incident has kind of impacted my emotions for quite abit. Work hasn't been great. I made another error, that led to alot of subsequent troubles. I blame myself alot. Simba said I was too sensitive. I know I am not a Science person. I am more of a left-brained person, someone who loves design, art and everything beautiful.

I gave the mouse cardiac puncture today. I anaesthetised it and then draw the whole volume of the blood from its heart. Before doing it, I have to cut its diaphragm and let it die of suffocation. It's sad. I saw it gasping for air and looked very uncomfortable, and it was so afraid that urine came out from its body. I cried. Wiped it off before colleague came to help me. He helped me to draw the whole blood from its heart, and some blood splashed onto him accidentally. Tears formed again. He saw them and pointed it out.

My trip to Langkawi was really fun! I would go back again next time, with a longer stay. I took the Cable Car, the Duck Tour, went for horse and elephant riding, Go-Kart... And Chuan Sia was saying, "So u did all the things you can do in Sentosa." LOL. That is so true, and the funny thing is Simba and I didn't realise it. But Pui Haan said, "But they did it with a different scenery." That's true too!

Our flight was at 7:05am and we have to do a transit at KL airport.
We went to Terminal 2 for Macs breakfast. I was expecting us to board the plane at Terminal 3, so we can walk around there. But the cab driver told us that Malaysia Airlines is only situated at Terminal 2.

Our first time with Malaysia Airlines. :D

After breakfast, the only interesting thing we saw before boarding the plane in Terminal 2 was this small Orchid garden. The orchids are of attractive colours and look so beautiful. :D

Right in the middle of these orchids are kois in the pond. He said I had to pretend to touch them. Lol.

If not for the airport background behind, u might have thought that I was in some park.
My bag was bought in Vietnam xoxo.

A close zoom on the purple orchid, our national flower.

And it was time to board the plane. We were quite disappointed since the outlook in the plane was none like SIA, but is quite similar to Jetstar or Tiger Airways.
We were given peanuts and orange juices. Pui Haan told me to try ordering wine but I didn't dare since it was a morning flight and no one else was ordering wine. They were obediently drinking the orange or apple juice that they were given. Simba said he shouldn't take the peanuts since he didn't feel like eating them. But I told him that I didn't want to eat them too but we should just keep them in our bags. Lol. Super auntie I know!

The travel Malaysian magazine at our seats. It was quite interesting! The writer recommended couples places to go for a romantic experience!

And after an hour, we reached KL airport. It was like it made an announcement for us to fasten our seatbelts and the plane was going to fly. And half an hour later, it made the same announcement but this time it would be landing. It was like taking a trip by MRT from Serangoon to NTU.

Harrods, the bear shop cum cafe we saw in the KL airport. Cool!

There were also delicate models of different airlines. :D

Cute dog at Toblerone!

Jungle Boardwalk. Nice man-made waterfall.

He likes these chains at the entrance of all the parks. Do those chains serve the prupose of keeping mosquitoes away? It's a wild guess. I do not know!

There were also these very comfy chairs at the KL airport. U can stretch your legs and rest them on this chair!

We got tired and hungry waiting for our next flight to Langkawi. We had mango strudel at Delifrance. I bought a mineral water for SGD4 and Simba was so agitated. "We need to buy a house u know!" He said. So funny. LOL.

And while waiting for our flight.

Flew for another 50 minutes and landed. The Langkawi airport gave maps and guides for tourists. We were ambitious and wanted to try walking to our hotel. Lol. Many taxis approached us along our way. We were walking alongside the road. It was so dangerous!

We saw cows on our way. Lol. They kept staring at us.

Zoomed right in on the not-so-camera-shy cow.
We gave up after 20 minutes of walking. It was too time-consuming, and the weather was against us. We flagged a cab and it drove us to our hotel for SGD5. We were relieved that we didn't walk all the way there since it was going to take a lot of perspiration and energy.

Our hotel lobby. This was the first time we travelled for leisure, not for shopping. And we were marvelled by the relaxed setting of the place. Love it!

And since we could only check in at 3pm, we ate our lunch in the hotel restaurant first. This is the view outside the restaurant.

Our cocktails. Our waiter dropped the stirrer from Simba's glass on the table and nearly put it back in. Omg. I stared at him and he forgo the idea of putting it back. Lol. Thank God for my eyes.

He ordered Asian cuisine. Nasi Kway Teow.
It was a big portion and he couldn't finish it. But it was nice. Worth the price of SGD16.

I ordered Carbonara. The sauce wasn't so creamy and u can finish the pasta without getting tired of the taste.
Yea, we didn't book the wrong hotel. The outlook was nice, food was great and service was awesome. We got the feeling that they served us genuinely, not just for tips.

After lunch, we walked around the premises of the hotel.

This is cute! The outside of the hotel lies a small beach.

Opposite the beach were a stretch of kelongs.

First attempt to take a photo with the logo of the resort behind us.
Failed.

2nd attempt. It was better but still our heads blocked part of it.

And finally it was 3pm and we could check in. We were pleasantly surprised when we were told that our room is a Studio Suite and we got to stay in one of the kelongs! Wow, I wondered if it was Simba who booked a better room, since he paid $200+ instead of $174 (original price). Lol.
And we were seated in a buggy where the bell boy would drive us to our room.

There was a balcony outside our room where from there we saw a magnificent view of offshore platforms built predominantly with wood in waters.

The room is so spacious! My first time in a 5-star hotel. Lol. Pardon the excitement.
U can sit on the couch, open the windows and enjoy the view.

Us at the balcony.

His idea. Lol.
I have a very sharp chin. :(

The cab driver waited outside our hotel at 3:30pm and drove us to the Oriental Village where most activities are held at.

:D

Entrance! U have to cross this bridge to get into the village. Simba just had to jump on it to make it shaky and that I would scream. LOL.

There were many of such playgrounds in parts of the place.

He did more embarrassing things again. He lost his balance and fell off it the first time. Lol. Many people were watching, wondering what he was trying to accomplish.

I like the feel of stretch of houses along the pavement. U will hardly see them in Singapore.
The sun is scorching and I felt 2 tones darker!

We came across a man holding a horse and walking beside it. We were curious and followed him. He asked if we wanted a 10 minutes ride with it. It costs RM10 per ride. Quite okie right the price!
He helped us take several photos before the ride started.

I chose the smaller black horse.

Chose the wrong camera setting and I looked very pale.

He made a horse face for our group photo and the man thought it wasn't on purpose. So funny! He took a few more photos of us since Simba wasn't cooperative. Lol.

He stopped at this photo. :D
The horse ride was quite an experience for me. It was quite shaky though. The horse tail felt like my hair! They are both very hoarse. Lol. Simba loved this ride so much. His horse was in front of mine, so he kept turning back to smile at me, while I was so conscious of my fear of falling off it.

Then we bought our package which consisted of Cable Car and Duck Tour tickets for RM60 each. Nice! Never get such a good deal in Singapore.

Our Duck Tour ride was at 5pm and we still had sometime for our elephant ride. Spent RM80 on this. Riding on the HUGE elephant, feeding it and taking photos with it.

We followed the elephant into the forest and out of it. The ride was steady and high. Our heads were near the branches of trees and we saw a squirrel feeding on chestnut up close on the tree.

The staff took about 20 photos of us throughout the elephant ride. I was quite satisfied with the photos! He has stable hands.

And we get to feed the elephant with bread.

He tried aiming high and see if the elephant would hold its trunk higher to get the bread. It didn't and so he had to loosen his arm strength and aim the bread at a lower height.

Me sincerely feeding the elephant.

That's all for Part One! Hope it wasn't boring!
:D

CNY 2012 Part II & Chicken Pot

2012-02-04T05:05:00.000-08:00

Are u very choosy on shoes? I am. I took ages to find a pair of covered shoes that I like. My covered shoes are torn and I got a new one from Rockster at Cine. :D

I think this is really pretty. The size 4 pair was so cute on display! But mine is not as cute since it is bigger!
First time that I bought shoes for more than $100. :D

I am very very happy that Jun Wen has gained a few pounds but sadly, i gained some weight myself. At this rate, we can never reach a weight equilibrium. Being really evil, I brought his favourite Ferroro Rochor from home for him. As the saying goes, "God, if u can't make me thin, please make all my friends fat." Of course in my case it will be "Please make my boyfriend fat." Lol. I came clear when my plot flopped. He saw through it. :D

Now I can't piggyback him anymore. He is deemed as too heavy.
29th Jan was our 3 years 8 months! And we went to Nex Chicken Pot for dinner. :P Jun Wen has been dying to try it. He just kept mentioning it to annoy me. Lols.

There was a long queue but I guess two people get seats easily. We were ushered to our seats about 5 minutes after we started queuing. This was our table with the empty pot. We were so looking forward to having our chicken pot.
We ordered the couple set that comes with shrimps, chicken and rice.

Jun Wen went jogging in the morning and came to bathe in my house. He wore my Temasek Poly tee. Lol. Kinda small for him though. His hair was still wet from the bath. Lol. And a secret about him was that he has never comb his hair since young. There wasn't a single comb in his room. But he still has nice looking hair. It's an unfair world. LOL.

The bowl of peanuts served to us. Jun Wen loves them! He was talking.. eating.. talking.. eating.. My mind was laughing. Lol. I am so evil! Tried all ways to make him fatter!

Me! Looking pale. Been receiving comments from people that I look tired. Do I? Why do they say that? I didn't realise I am tired. I am not. :D

The shrimps with lots of nian gao below. Simba was disappointed. Lols.

Likes this photo x1000.
Look like some prawn advertisement.

The chicken in the chicken pot came soon after. We got to choose if our pot is spicy or not. We didn't know we have this option since everytime we walked past this place, we smell spice! Lots of them so much so that I thought the name of this restaurant is Chilli Pot. Lol.

He was disappointed once more on the chicken. There were more bones than chicken.
Spent $26.90 for these two pots and he said we could have a steamboat buffet at Bugis with this money. Lols. It was the first time I saw Jun Wen so annoyed by the contents of a restaurant. He must have really look forward to eating there but was really let down by the food.

The chicken bones and the chicken.

The steamboat that my family had at home.

Every second day of CNY was the day I visit Simba's uncle's house. This is his daughter's room. She loves piglet from Winnie the Pooh alot. That was Simba holding up one of them.

Took a candid of his relatives playing mahjong.

And Jun Wen's mum spotted my camera.

Some were singing. I was surprised that the neighbours were friendly even though the noise level was so high in this house.

Simba, Simba's cousin and his wife-to-be.

His uncle kindly took a photo of us. He asked us why the corners are darkened and Simba's cousin lied that his fingers were blocking the lens. The uncle became really puzzled after a few photos. Lols.
Poor uncle!

See the girl in black dress? She is Jun Wen's cousin and always talks to him. Lol. She has gotten Jun Wen to play Black Jack for $2 each game. Lol.
Then she went broadcasting it to the other cousins. Hearing that the bet is $2, every cousin over 21 came to play. Jun Wen lost quite abit and couldn't believe it. (His life seems to be always smooth and lucky.)

And we had CNY gathering at Joanne's house too. She is really a good host. :D

There were 16 of us. Most brought their bfs or gfs. :D
We saw Jason's new girlfriend for the first time. Like Daniel's girlfriend, she is really friendly. At the end of the gathering, she paid for our taxi fare. Lol. (She stays in Seng Kang, and I took the cab with her. I was initially afraid that it will be awkward, but it isn't!)

We stood around to have our steamboat. :D

And our rice is brown rice.

Her house was filled with CNY deco and her curtain was red too.

And after dinner, we were ready to sing. Joanne's dad is so nice. He set up the karaoke system for us before we came. I remembered the time when I was at her house waiting for my flight and her dad woke up at about 3am to send me to the airport. So nice right!

This is Jason trying to pose as if he was some art. Lol.

The basket of mandarin oranges! Love it. Lol. Gives the house a welcoming feeling. Like the abundant amount of oranges are always ready for exchange. :D

Samuel picking songs. He always starts the ball rolling. Lol. My nightmare again came true when he deliberately sang funnily.

Photo was supposed to be candid but Jason had to pose for it.

Tried it again but he was still aware of the camera.

Took 2 photos of Si Ting and Sam but Sam was dissatisfied with how he looked in them. He thought he looked fat. Hence, he got Song Hua to sit down with Si Ting while he stood behind them, away from the camera. Smart hor!

Then it was mahjong time.

As you know, the few poly friends signed on with the army. And for sometime, they talked about army. Sam was beside me and said he didn't know how to get into the main conversation. He suggested that we count the number of birds in the protrait hung on the wall. There were supposed to be a hundred of them. Joanne said she counted a few times and there were only 99. LOL.

And a group photo before we left for home.
There were 3 couples that have at least a 7-year relationship. They stayed together since poly days. Joanne and bf, Chia Liang and wife, and Wei Jian and gf.

Will be going to Langkawi on 10th Feb. :D Groupon was having a 62% off the Lagoon Resort in Langkawi. We didn't know that it was a five-star hotel until my colleague told me. We were so blur. We only booked our transport last night. It was too last minute and all flights in Air Asia were booked. Jetstar has only a Friday afternoon departure time and we will be still working (Jun Wen can't take leave as he is on course!). We decided on taking Silkair (SGD200 each) but that night it was booked as well.
I fell asleep and woke up the next morning with a msg from Simba that all Silkair flights were fully booked too. I then searched for flights with Tiger Airways and Firefly: From Singapore to Sudang, then from Sudang to Langkawi. It would be 2 separate flights to get there. About SGD200 each in total.

And after a while.. Simba said he booked the Malaysian Airlines with SGD590 each. Omg. We could go Hong Kong or Taiwan with that amount of money.) LOL. He said he didn't get a reply from me that night (I dozed off.) and he just booked it. Hahaha! I think my boyfriend is always willing to spend. He is not willing to take a 10-hour coach at ~SGD50 at the risk of his life and him getting an achy back. (Okie, I admit I was quite willing in order to save money. Lol.)

I have learnt not to be so last minute ever! Lol. We were also very last minute in submitting the flat application documents. I think that's us.

:D

Parkland Residences

2012-02-01T17:30:00.001-08:00

The results of the ballot are out. Our queue number is 370 when there are 680 units in total. However out of the 680, 273 are 4-room flats. Erm.. Keeping fingers crossed.

CNY 2012 at Granny's House

2012-01-29T00:47:00.000-08:00

Hope u guys had a nice CNY!

If our application for Parkland Residences is successful (keeping fingers crossed), I would have to return Jun Wen's dad $500 per month (for 5 years). Jun Wen and I would be paying his dad back by installments for the down payment, which is $45k cash. (Yea, the 4-room flat is ~$550k.) And by Mar 2012, I could only save $500 per month. Omg. Maybe I should do some investments, maybe next year!

No one else except me was in the lab last week. The colleagues had all taken leave. Lol.

Colleague helped me with my experiment last last week though.
He diluted one chemical compound by a factor of 2 each time and placed them into cuvettes. And look at the nice colours that were produced. Cool isn't it!

Yesterday Simba came to my house for CNY visit, and gave my mum this hamper:

Front view of the hamper.
Lol! I was teasing him to buy a hamper for my mum as I wanted to see his shocked and unwilling expression. But he really bought it! He carried this hamper from Nex to my house, with many eyes on him on his way here.

Back view of the hamper.

My first day of CNY:

After having KFC at Nex, we went to paternal granny's house very early this year. In past years, we would go to maternal granny's house for lunch steamboat before going to paternal granny's for dinner steamboat. But maternal granny has passed away and so parents decided to go for fast food lunch in future years. Mum said maybe her brother will invite us next year to his house. :D

This is granny's house. Always lots of food on the table. She would always offer us lots of them from time to time.

Like any other CNY, we would get a little bored watching TV and eating the CNY goodies. So thank God for data plan, we would use our phones to surf the net.

One of the decorations we helped to put up on New Year's Eve.

We had 2 tables for steamboat dinner. Each family has to take turns since the table wouldn't be big enough.

After dinner, it was photo time! Cousin Angela, now 19, suggested that we should take our photo taking session outside granny's house at the balcony since the background is nicer.

Thanks to my camera and the coincidental cooperative lightings, they said the photo looked like it was taken from some photo studio. Look at how the lighting shone down on Cousin!

Left to Right: Younger brother (23 yrs old), me (25), Angela (19), Li Jing (27), Clarrissa (9), Bernita (16), Elder brother (28).

Although Angela and I are both having the same height and weight, she looks thinner. Lol. Perhaps my weighing scale is lying to me! And yea, my dress is abit tight. LOL. (Note to self: I shouldn't always try to buy a size smaller than I am.)

Guang Yi (14) and Guang Zhi (12).
The balcony photo was taken by cousin, Guang Yi, (Yea, same name as my younger brother). He and his brother, Guang Zhi were playing their PSPs at the stairs. They were too shy to mingle with the rest. Lol.

When I asked them to take photos with us, they didn't want to since they thought we aren't as cool as them. Lol. Kids nowadays. Yes, they pierced their ears. They have GFs too. Omg! Their skin complexions are dark as they are half Thais.

On New Year's Eve, Cousin Li Jing brought along a bottle of white wine to share with us. And on New Year's Day itself, Daddy and my 2 other uncles brought wines too. So altogether there were 3. Lol.
They the brothers think alike.

Uncle poured the wine into cups and wasted some! :(

Cousin Bernita said she wanted to spam her Facebook photos so she asked me to take more photos of her. Aunt always tries to rush into the photo. And this photo was ruined.

Angela and Bernita got influenced by Li Jing and now love getting their nails painted. Lol.
Caught up with both of them and got to know that Bernita has matured. She has began to study really hard and only slept 6 hours a day! Her teacher has confidence that she will top the class. Lol.
Angela, now in JC, on the other hand, was not too motivated. When I asked her what course she wanted to take in Uni, she said she might not be able to go there so she hasn't really thought of it. She reckoned that she was quite slack. Lol.

The 3 wines my uncles and Dad brought.
Dad's wine was a dessert wine. We bought it from Wine Connection at Nex. I thought it tasted the best. It has at least a sweeter taste compared to the other two. Although I heard Uncle's wine is much more expensive. Lol.

They were saying Bernita is becoming to look more and more like Li Jing. Lol. And Bernita seemed very worried.

Omg. Look at Dad acting cute.
Clarrissa was in the background, further away from us, as she was very angry at her sisters ignoring her.

And before they went home, we asked Granny to pose for photos with us. She became a star.

Younger bro is still growing taller. Lol. He used to be one of the shortest in his class.
I looked like a national flag. :D

Me, my awkward smile, and my very kind granny.

This was one special effect fom my camera. I think it was too close up so it turned out to be very white and cui. Lol. Li Jing likes high angled shots so that our double chins will not be obvious.

And that was the first day of CNY!

And this was what I wore on the 2nd day of CNY:

A dress with abit of cheongsam details. Love it lots.
:D

2012-01-26T01:42:00.000-08:00

Xmas 2012 Part Two

2012-01-23T08:47:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year! :D
I had a nice day today at my paternal granny's house. We didn't go to my maternal grandma's house since grandma has passed away. Still having a good relationship with my cousins. One of my distant cousins (granny's sister's son) still looks like QC, my eye candy. Being extra nice to him. Lol.

Here is Part Two of our Xmas at Capella.

Ling drew xmas cards for us:

All of us are potatoes! So cute! She always makes alot of effort in handmaking things for us. :D
Shixing's is so funny! Potato in a potato couch. She understands us alot! I like mine too, especially the chipmunk.

Love this photo. So artistic right!

Since his and my birthday fall on the same day, 27th Apr, he let me go first.
Oops, I forgot what his presents were. I only remembered the T-shirt was from Miao and I gave him a small pouch bag. :D Think it suits him alot!

He tried on the T-shirt immediately. Really his style!

Miao! Next oldest. 1st June her birthday. She received mostly things with scent. Lol. Soups and perfumes. I know her boyfriend calls her "Chao Chao" (meaning smelly) and kept teasing her that day about those gifts. I bought her ear rings, something I thought was unique since it will only be sold in the Titanic Exhibition at Art Science Museum. And Shixing bought her a book, which I thought was interesting. We agreed that this time Shixing really put in money and effort in buying gifts for everyone. Cheers to Darren Chuwa! :D

Miao is a day older than Joe. His is 2nd June!
I gave the Joe's present to Tuck Wei and he opened Joe's! Oops. And Joe only opened a few presents since Tuck Wei didn't have time to get gifts for the guys. He has gotten 2 hair gels from Miao and Ling I think. I didn't notice that Joe wears hair gel. LOL. Very lousy friend I am!
I bought him a Unico (I forgot the correct spelling LOL) checkered shirt. Brown and red stripes. Very Christmasy right! He also was given a belt. Lol. Seems like we always thought he needed belts and gels.

Shixing got alot of perfumes from us. One of the perfumes was from me. I got it from Marks and Spencer! Thought it suits him very well. Kind of classy smell. Miao got him a Anti-Hangover mug! So cute!
Time to drink lesser Shixing!

We got Joe's gf a bit of something too. She is the youngest. A few years younger than us. :D

We played the Drinking game that Ling and Calvin bought for Wan as an appreciation that Miao and him sponsored the hotel room.

Everyone will each take a turn to roll the dice and one will drink the cup with the number that the dice falls on.
Some cups have pure water, some pure vodka, some red wine, some soft drink...

And after sometime...

Shixing added chips, wasabi, soy sauce... Wan and Jun Wen love the idea and added more and more weird stuff into the cups. I was so scared of wasabi. I recalled once that I had too much of it and it gave me a suffocating feeling. So.. whenever my drink involves wasabi, Jun Wen was there to help me. Even if he did so unwillingly. Lol.

We slept at about 5am! Was amazed at the snores some friends had. LOL LOL!
They were so tired. First it was just one friend. I was woken up by it and I woke Simba up, saying that I couldn't sleep. He then couldn't too! And we heard another type of high pitched snoring. And Simba's reaction was so funny! He covered his ears and shrieked, "Now TWO!"

The next morning when we woke up. No make up on me, omg. Nobody except my family was supposed to see me without make up! :D
Jun Wen placed the toy horse on Miao's head. Never seen him so happy before. He really loves that toy. Lol. I'm glad that Jun Wen feels comfortable with my this group of friends and that he spoke more than usual. Kind of like a miracle since Jun Wen is always shy. I thank especially the guys for that. Thank Joe for first having chemistry with him in our last KL trip! LOL.

He even brought a xmas hat from his house!

Merrry Xmaasss Jun Wen!
I logged in Jun Wen's Facebook account and set this pic as his display pic. Lol. He only knew it 2 days later and he knew it was me! Oops.

Hotel Capella! While waiting for our shuttle to come, we went around the hotel to take some photos.

The golf cart. Cool!

Took a photo under the BIG GOLD ribbon. So Xmasy. Love it! Thanks Jun Wenfor the awesome photo.

And wow! The movie poster photo. 那些年....
Miao's bf always knows how to take nice photos. :D

The standing tall peacock on a rooftop. It was so cute. It shrieked very loudly, loud enough to scare us. But it seemed to wanna catch our attention so that we take a photo with it.

And it got its wish!

My favourite photo of 2011. Everyone striked a different pose! So unique and natural.

After breakfast, shixing and tuck wei went back home while the rest headed back to the hotel for jacuzzi.
I was opening drawers and taking photos of what's inside. Cool selection of teas.

The bfs in the tub. Simba was too shy and needed alot of persuasion to get him into here with the other 2 guys. Calvin on the other hand was very eager to get into it. Lols.

Ling thought of a new idea, which is to put some honey into the tub and lots of bubbles form. Lol.

Met Ying, who was unable to attend, at Nex.
Tuck Wei came along too!

Saw the Santa behind? That was our purpose. Taking a photo with xmas decorations!

Went to the Sky Garden for gift opening.
Everyone passed heir gifts to me and Ling to pass them to Ying. Her gifts were all cute! She loves My Melody and elephants. So it is quite clear cut on the things we can get for her. Jun Wen, being her fan, was willing to share half the cost of her present. We got her a Elephants of Asia tote bag from Tangs. Thought it was unique as well since Elephants of Asia is the theme for only Year 2011's xmas.

She got me a Stitch face towel. I am still very conservative about bringing it to the gym and let my sweat touch it. Stitch can't drink my perspiration. Lols. And also I have a small cute coin pouch. :D

Ying bought also cute things for Ling in return. She knows what Ling likes very well. :) The gloomy bear and Little Twin Stars.

Have u had a great Xmas in year 2011?
I had! MERRY XMAS! :D

Little things of 2012

2012-01-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

It's been 3 months!
And I have gotten my permanent staff pass! :D

Now I have 20% discount on items in the SGH pharmacy. And am entitled to Annual Leave and MC. Lol. Sorry about the scary photo. It must be the flash of the camera that makes my face so white.

Work is getting alot busier, but i kind of like that I'm doing something meaningful. Lol. Colleagues have been really helpful and made my life much easier. :D I have to do abit of administrative work and it is kind of annoying. Lols. Kept filling up the wrong forms and send in purchases with missing details and they kept bouncing back to me.

Next experiment is coming up in mid Feb and will last all the way till mid Mar. And have to work OT that whole month.

Wanted to take leave but can't till Mar! Think I will take a few days off near my birthday. :)

I like it that time at work passes really fast. I don't have to look at my watch all the time and count down to 6pm, or to the weekend.

And yes, I finally have to (HAVE TO) use an organizer and a calendar. Lol. Can u imagine me using them? I don't have a a choice since I may forget stuff I have to do the next day or the following week. Now I finally realise the importance of keeping record of the list of tasks I have to do.

And after getting the mouse license, I was granted access to our Animal House and our senior showed us around in it. The smell was incredible. I was suffocating from it and needed to run out of the House a few times to resist the urge of vomiting. U really have to come and experience it. I really dunno how I am going to describe that. I was rather rude since I ran out while CS was explaining things to me. :D

It turned out I have to go with CS to the Animal House almost everyday after that, to learn all the mouse work from him and help him whenever he needs me to. My project is closely related to his, u see. I tolerated the smell by calming myself down and trying very hard to pretend nothing was wrong. And then after sometime, I got used to it. Thank God that we, humans, are adaptive people.

I have began injecting cancerous tumors into mice. And trust me, the feeling was terrible. They are so cute. They curled up like a ball when I shaved off their fur. I tried reducing damage to them but it was rather hard.
:(
I poked the needle through one mouse's skin a few times before I did the injection right. And on one, I accidentally injected the tumor lower than where it supposed to be and I know when the tumor gets bigger, this mouse will not be able to walk. For the other 2, my needle scratched its skin, it bleeds. Poor mice. I hope I will improve quicker and reduce any damage done to the mice.

I had to pierce their ears. It was scary I tell u! I had to do it fast so that they won't feel the pain. But I had to aim it right. I can't pierce where their veins are. So I installed alot of fear in them by stalling time before I finally pierced those ears. Poor mice! I vow never never to be a nurse.

And poor colleague! He was holding the mouse for me and all the while was worrying that I would give him an accidental injection. Lol! His reaction was so fast and funny when I pointed the syringe at him. Sorry CS! I will be careful next time.

The mouse course wasn't great too. Everyone in the end have to kill the mice and rats. My colleague, KP, and I didn't want to. I give it a dose of anesthetics and left it sleeping on my desk when I was about to leave. But one of the instructors didn't know I didn't kill it and was about to put it into the plastic bag filled with other mice corpses. I stopped him and said I didn't kill it and asked him to kill it for me.

For it to wake up among all his dead friends and then be freezed in the freezer, or die with its friends, i chose the latter. It may be just too much for it to endure.

And got bitten on the finger by a very aggressive mouse during the course. Also got scratched by a rat on the hip. Hurts so bad! So bad I felt that it was bleeding. It wasn't actually. I think I was psychologically affected. Lol.

There was this technique we had to use to restrain the rat while giving it an injection. We had to put it on our left hips and use our palms to hold it down. Apparently my palm isn't big enough and the rat kept struggling, scratching my hip. It turned out that I had to use my whole arm and use all my strength to press it down. By then, I was totally freaked out. Yes, a rat is much bigger than the mouse in our lab. A rat is about the size of a small rabbit. I was glad that the mice in our lab aren't rats and aren't so aggressive.

Now my sadness at work aside...

Blogging about the small things I did lately.

These are the different Facebook accounts in Jun Jie's iPad. Lol. They included me into it too. So cute!

And this packet of Hersey's Kisses was from colleagues! :D
They never failed to surprise me.

And I finally have my first credit card. Citibank Rewards Card. And the very day we wanted to go somewhere that has Citibank discount but couldn't find one near Ion. So we settled for NYDC.

Jun Wen with big hands.

And we explored Holland V one fine evening after work. Was introduced to Amici restaurant.

We bought a $30 voucher and got to enjoy our meals at one-for-one and also receive a free bottle of wine worth $40!
We both shared a bottle of wine and regretted it as soon as it reached our table. It was just too much for the 2 of us.

Jun Wen's Marinara!

My Crab pasta. The 2 pastas were great. Just a little too spicy. I will give them a 4.5/5.

Colleagues asked me to smile this way, showing the teeth so that I look more natural.

And Simba was so edgy that evening. He was pretty uptight about finishing that bottle of wine and the sparkling water. He was pouring the wine into our glasses and hoping so much to finish it. He was also eavesdropping and turning to look at the people at the next table. Lols.

We finished the drinks after sitting at the restaurant for 2 hours. We never stayed at a dining place for 2 hours before and maybe that's why Simba became so fidgety. We got quite tipsy after that. Lol.

Capella Hotel Sentosa for Xmas

2012-01-16T10:13:00.000-08:00

Hey hey! My internet connection hasn't been working well lately. I can't access Blogger. To make things worse, internet tethering via bluetooh just can't work. Can't use my data plan for my laptop. :(

Here to blog about our Xmas at Capella, as requested by Simba. :D

That afternoon was a rush since Simba and I went to dye our hair and in the end I left without hair treatment since the hairdresser was taking forever to dye my hair. Lol.

As we were warned by Miao that we would have to walk quite abit to reach the nearest restaurant to dine in, we have to bring our own food. :D

I brought pasta after seeking opinions from my colleagues.

Capella Hotel was Miao's idea and it was sponsored by her and her boyfriend. Thanks again Miao! :D

Right at the moment we reached, the guys went to explore the toilet. Lol.
They discovered that it cannot be locked. Lol. Think it was meant to be this way.. A room for couples to stay in.

We girls went to place all the presents together! They formed a huge pile.

Thanks Joe for the lovely photo! Us girls with the pressies.
Meet a new face in our clique, Vicky. She is Joe's girlfriend! :D
Feel really happy for our "sister" to find someone he can care for. Lols!
I think Vicky is really really pretty! Omg.

We stayed at the 5th floor and this is how the view looks from the balcony.
Love the view.

A couch, or should I say bed, by the balcony. U can sit there and chat with a few friends all night while enjoying the breeze and the night view. Too bad it was raining that night and this couch was pretty wet.

And our dinner!
Following is our menu:
Miao brought satay and Magnum Mini ice-cream.
Ling brought potato salad and ham.
I brought pasta.
Joe brought pizzas.
Tuck Wei brought homemade fried chicken. (He claimed that he made them but we had our doubts. Lol.)
Shi Xing brought sushi.

Tuck Wei's fried chicken. It was yummy! I was amazed frankly speaking. So our Tuck Wei can cook. Lol. He said he added in cheese but maybe we couldn't taste it. I did taste a slight.. a slight hint of it. Lol.

The friends and some bfs. And my boyfriend's stealer, Tuck Wei.

Miao's Uno with the jasmine scented aromatherapy. I just realised we didn't get to play any Uno in the end. I think I have the talent for photography. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Mad thick-skinned!

Shi Xing's sushi. This is so generous of him to buy this set of sushi with so many varieties to choose from. I chose all the expensive ones to eat. Lol. I'm just so evil.

Joe's pizza from Pizzahut I think. Pizza is really a safe choice. I mean, it is everyone's favourite.
I bought 5 boxes of pasta, which is too much. Lol. Simba kept on complaining that I dunno estimation. Lols.

The alcohols we had for the night: Carlsberg, apple cidar, apple ginger vodka and red wine.

Shi Xing helping to open the bottle of red wine. To make him such a professional waiter, he threw in a small towel on his wrist and pour the wine with style. Lols. Shi Xing and all his great ideas.

:D

Tuck Wei kind of scared poor Simba that night with overwhelming hospitality. Poor Simba was so scared of gayism!

Cheers, my friends, cheers~

Our dessert. Most of us chose white flavour over dark and almond.

He helped to model for this. My blog!

Simba had influenced every of my friend to like horses. And now even my friend's boyfriend. Hahaha.
Making horse faces together.

Time for the self-timer and many poses.
A good photo is a photo with many many happy faces on it.

Love the class photo. Really brought back memories of secondary school days. Days where I sat in front and near the teacher for the class photo.

Always training to take a photo by ourselves but this time, Miao volunteered to help us with it. Just like that day I saw her in Hong Kong. She helped us with plenty. Thanks Miao!

Ling's boyfriend was very kind to bring his PS3 and we had lots of fun and laughter playing "Little Big Planet".
This was in the process of customizing their own characters.
The zebra-like character was created by Miao, the colourful polka dots by Ling and the plant-like creature by Simba!
Once again, he only makes his characters as ugly as possible.

And then it was almost midnight. We prepared our presents and .. while waiting...

Tuck Wei had a surprise for the guys. He gave them a watch each. The watch isn't just a watch, it serves as an accessory too to enhance your style. Lols.
As the guys liked to tease each other, Joe acted very unwilling to accept Tuck Wei's gift for him.

Jun Wen acted very happy since he was deeply appreciated by my friend Tuck Wei. They saluted to I-dunno-who.

Calvin looked so thrilled. So funny!!

We started from the oldest.
Hence, Miao's boyfriend was the first to open his presents.
Suspenders from Tuck Wei (I think).
Chocolate eggs from me. (Hahaha!)
Drinking Roulette game from Ling.
And I couldn't recognise the other presents. Sorry Joe and Shi Xing!

Next oldest is Ling's boyfriend, Calvin.
Yes, the boyfriends are all older so they had priority in opening the presents.
The snowman toy from Miao. So cute! Soooo cute! I really wanna steal it sometime when he wasn't looking.
And the eyemask from Joe. Lols.

Next in line is of course Jun Wen who is a year older than most of us.
He got a toy horse from Miao, a mobile phone holder from Calvin, a flash drive from Ling and a massager from Joe. He loved the plush toy so much.

Then was Ling's turn.
Towels from Shi Xing.
Hair accessories from me.
Paul Frank accessories from Miao.
Mouse from Tuck Wei.
Music divider from Joe. (I gave it a random name. Haha. It's for plugging in to the iPhone and 2 people can use 2 pairs of earpieces to listen to music or watch videos. :D)
Wows, I could remember all of them.

And I have...
A very red Angry Birds umbrella from Tuck Wei. (Oh no! Must be that I remind him of being grumpy all the time)
A music divider from Calvin. (He got the same present as Joe to Ling. Lol.)
A scarf and contacts lens case from Miao.
A photo frame from Shi Xing.
A Mango cardigan from Ling.
A cooler from Joe. (Oh no. I am so grumpy that I need a cooler. Hahaha!)

Got to stop here for the time being. Time to sleep and go to work tomorrow. :D
Blog again tmr.

I'm sick again!

2012-01-13T02:49:00.001-08:00

3rd time I'm sick since I started work. I only worked for 3 months. :(

If u know me well u know that I'm seldom sick.

2/3 of the people who handle mice develop allergies to them. Sad to say that I am part of them.

Now I understand why my colleague is forever sick. He said he used to only fall sick once a year.

I have attended the mouse course and now own a mouse license! :D

Year 2011 Part One

2012-01-08T09:08:00.000-08:00

Year 2011 is now the past. Last year was an average one for me.
Let me sum up my year 2011 with pictures!

I had my last semester of school. I remembered being really uptight because of my FYP. All I can think of what I was busy with from Jan to Apr 2011 is FYP.

Our FYP meeting room. The room where we had alot of memories of Prof making us learn... in a harsh way. Lols. To say the truth, I had a tough time coping with his remarks. Sad hor! I wanna say, Science really doesn't make sense to me! Haha! My FYP report was 97-page long and it took me alot of energy and time. Omg. Can't imagine how I survived FYP.

Taken in 2011. Me in NTU shuttle bus.

We were in our final year, Year 4 and we were so tired of any usual brand of coffee or tea to keep us awake. Hence, Simba bought these expensive teas from our school's 7-11 for us to keep us from sleeping during lectures.

CNY 2011.

2011 was also the rabbit year, our year!

Valentines 2011.
Simba's gift for me: A polaroid camera.

I remembered being extremely happy that day as we were about to ride the bum boat like tourists! It was on the 12th Feb 2011 that we went out as CNY falls on the 14th! And on the 13th, I need to go to grandma's to have reunion dinner.

In the bum boat.

My valentines' gift for him was a Audio Technica earpiece.

From Universal Studios (29th May 2011)

29th May 2011. I have finished exams!
My 1st time to USS on my 3rd year anniversary with Jun Wen! Love it. I was so thrilled!

From Universal Studios (29th May 2011)

So cute! Made me feel like going once more to USS!

I went travelling too. Went to Hainan Island for distant relatives visiting!
Cousin and I in uncle's van in Hainan!

Hainan cousins.

Cute Hainan cousin.

Remembered their houses to be so museum-like. Everything looks so vintage!

The chickens in the kampong.

Remembered the Initial-D road. Lol. The road that is narrow and has many speeding and drifting vehicles.

Remembered the mobile photo wedding studio.

My 1st time to a plantation. Cool!

Continue with Part Two soon. I'm feeling so exhausted now!
My list of things-to-do in 2012:

1. Braces. No more excuses to keep myself from getting my teeth straighter and healthier.
2. Sessions of Diamond Peel. I heard it is really good! (5 sessions will cost $400. Omg!)
3. Increase no of times to go to the gym. Sad to say, I have gained about 3kg ever since I started working. I used to boast that I have never really gained much weight since poly. Somehow, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I really didn't see much difference. Lol. But when I stepped on the weighing machine in the gym every week, I still see the heavier weight. Oh no oh no! Time to slim down!
4. Go to Korea to spend winter.
5. Buy Dad a iPad2 for him to start learning a computer.
6. Buy more cameras (which is kind of impossible). I decided to have a new hobby, which is collecting cameras. I know u are scolding me siao by now.
7. Take Mum and Dad for a vacation. Expenses fully paid by me. (OMG! Maybe 2013!)
8. Save more than $1,000 per month.
9. Work harder!!
10. Treat my secondary school friends to dinner in Feb (1st pay treat is postponed to Feb! Sorry guys, I was still in debt to my parents!) and on my birthday!

:D

Insect and Butterfly Kingdom

2012-01-01T21:40:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Our Outlet.com.sg voucher at $39 per pax entitles us to a visit to the Insect and Butterfly Kingdom with free bird feeding, a tea set and a mocktail at the Skybar on top of the visit to Underwater World!

This is the 3rd consecutive weekend we went to Sentosa! Lol.
The 1st was for Underwater World, 2nd for Capella and now this!

We thought Skybar meant the Skybar on the rooftop of Micheal's Hotel, not the Tiger Skybar near the Tiger Skytower! Hence, we took a pretty long time to figure out where the entrance of the hotel is. This is the location near Micheal's Hotel.

There were many cute characters to accompany visitors for photos.
Humpy Dumpty! Simba said we looked alike. Lol! Sometimes I think although he doesn't deliberately tease me, he would say things that indirectly did!

Pinocchio!
Lol. Simba is most like Pinocchio since he always lies! I've been persuading him that he couldn't take spicy food but he presses on with his idea that he can. When he really really can't.

We bought an ice-cream at the Stick House that cost $6.50. Omg. Everything at Sentosa is there to sell at an incredibly high price! It is Hazelnut ice-cream with milk chocolate and almond topping. To give justice to the ice-cream, I must say it tasted great!
Really love this photo since it emphasizes the ice-cream and blurs out Simba. Hahahahahaha!

The Stick House is just beside Imbiah Station.

Finally after asking for directions, we finally knew that the Skybar is the Tiger Skybar, not the Skybar in Micheal's Hotel.
The Skybar is located high enough for us to get some of Sentosa's sceneries.

The mocktail cannot be chosen but luckily, it tasted okie. Not fantastically great but good.
The lemon wasn't for enhancing the beauty of the drink but was really for adding to your drink. (I didn't know that so I actually didn't add any lemon to my drink before.)

My colleagues said my hair is quite bright, and I looked quite different with it. I remembered asking for a gold color but my hair turned out to be copper. Well.. I think I like it despite the mistake.

Nice cup.

That's him against the scenery of Sentosa.

And we went to the Insect and Butterfly Kingdom after that.

:D

That's a hut with many butterflies on top. To say the truth, I was pretty freaked out as butterflies kept flying around us. Although the tour of the nature was supposed to be relaxing, I broke out in cold sweat. Lol.

Behind the enclosure was this butterfly. It was moving its wings all the time and Simba used the high-burst mode of the camera. The high-burst mode was meant for capturing moving objects and this is so cool! Of course, after that I will find 10 to 15 photos of the butterfly. When I move from one photo to another, the butterfly's actions can be captured. U will see its wings flap as u look through these photos.

This photo didn't require any zoom. The butterfly is so used to visitors that when u point your camera at it with a minimal distance to it, it doesn't fly away and instead poses for it. U can see the details of its wings so clearly. I'm so impressed with Canon IXUS HS 230.

Thank you Simba, the photographer! Lols.
He was careful enough not to perturb the peace of this butterfly. It was stretching its wings as if it just wakes up.

Its wing pattern reminds me of a tiger.

And it was time for some bird feeding. We had 2 tickets but I didn't want to feed the birds despite much assurance from Simba. He assured me that these birds won't harm me. But I was so afraid of their touch. Lol.
The staff gave Simba two handfuls of seeds.
He was advised to stretch out his hands filled with seeds and the birds will fly over to him.

He didn't succeed. No birds flew to him and he approached this bird which was sitting on the noticeboard.

It worked. This bird went to his palm.

The staff held up a cup of drink and one bird flew to him. Hence he passed his effort to Simba.

So cute! It looked into my camera!

The seed in its mouth.

Soon after, it flew away since Simba made a big sudden movement. He held out the bird to me and I let out a loud shriek. Lol. Poor bird!

And this time, as if he had enough practice, he began to attract the birds.

He stretched out his entire arm horizontally and placed a few seeds on it. And wow, 3 birds flew to him.
His arm reminded me of some long thin wire line where birds perched on.

He then feed these birds with his left palm. They gathered together to have a feast.

This bird is so big and heavy. It is a peacock right?
It is so fierce. It rejected anything from Simba and flew from place to place to avoid him.

Then he placed a seed on his left shoulder. The bird hopped over his neck to reach the seed. I wondered if it gets ticklish.

Poster mode. Captain Hook is here.

He placed a seed on his thigh and shooed the birds to go on it. Lols. But none of them understood him. Hahahaha.

And after the birds had enough food, they flew off.
Simba still had some seeds left and wanted to attract this big white parrot to fly down. However, it was screaming high up there without giving any response to him.

On our way, he threw some seeds onto the ceiling hoping that the birds up there will catch them with their beaks. No such luck. Hahaha. This is not a circus.

Inside a cave, we get to view insects such as the diving beetle, rhino beetle and stick insects.
Not showing the photos here to freak u out.

Some exhibits of different species of perserved butterflies.

And here is our tea set (included in the $39 voucher) from Sarpino's Pizza.
The set includes fries, a slice of pizza and a can drink.

:D
This pretty much sums up what I have from our trip.
See u soon guys!

Gone with my moustache, Underwater World

2011-12-28T08:26:00.000-08:00

I wanna proudly say, I am no longer a coffee addict! I have quit! :D
I live a healthier diet. No fast food and no koi! Lol. (SGH doesn't have fast food outlets!) And I have been taking detoxification pills.

My colleague, CS, has been looking at research papers and read about an alternative method of shaving mice's hair. He always uses the shaver but wanted to try the hair removal cream on the mice. But he volunteered me as his guinea pig before he gets to the mice. Lol. Poor me! His reason was because I am the most hairy among them. It's true though. Hence, he used the cotton stick to apply some cream on a small patch of my hand. And after 7 minutes, I have absolutely no hair in the area. Lol!

Hence, I grew ecstatic cos I was going to try it on my moustache since they said I look rugged with moustache. LOL. I thought I look cool. HAHAHA! They laughed hard when I was applying the cream on top of the lip. And again, the moustache was gone!

Then he tried it on one mouse and its hair was removed effortlessly after awhile. It became from a white mouse to a nude one. So cool! Next time I don't have to use the shaver anymore. (I'm a rowdy person and may hurt the mouse using the shaver.)

I have been looking at Groupon and Outlet.com.sg for interesting stuff to do. And Simba and I paid $38 each for admission to Underwater World, Insect and Butterfly Park with free bird feeding, and high tea at Skybar.

So that rainy Sunday afternoon, we went to Sentosa!

It was raining heavily and we had to take shelter in the cave.

Everytime we go to Sentosa, we would often wear lesser clothing than usual since we are doing outdoor activities. But this time, I felt so cold becos of the rain! Thank God I have a cardigan!

I wondered how he always knows what to do with the objects around him to pose for a picture. His expression is so real~ Haha.

This is outside the Hershey's store. Simba was very embarrassed to pose with this since no one else was taking photo with it. Hence in the end I could only take a photo of its own.

Me with the Hersheys ~^^

The merlion looked spoiled.

And after a long walk from the Bayfront monorail station, we finally reached!
Simba didn't want to take a shuttle bus and we walked in the rain with an umbrella. Simba was holding the umbrella and half of me was wet the next few minutes we stepped out into the rain. He accidentally slanted his grip and a few times it hit my head. When I told him that, he laughed and said, "U have too much hair!"
Lol. Never once Simba apologized. :D

We saw a white peacock walking around. Wanted to go near it to take a picture but it was too shy!

After multiple attempts to pose with the peacock, Simba still failed.
It turned its back on him!

A touch pool next to the entrance. Meaning that the visitors are welcomed to touch the stingrays in the pool.

Simba went ahead to touch the different species of stingrays. They seemed very friendly and enjoy the attention they are getting. Lol.
Visitors were warned against taking the stingrays out of the pool.

He kept persuading me to touch one of them but I was too afraid to. I told him I only touch mice, nothing else.

These fishes can be touched too. I wondered if this is good for the psychological health of these fishes. Imagine yourself trapped somewhere for display and giants stretch their hands all the way in to touch you. Omg.

This is FUNNY.

This is a spider crab. :D

A part of this crab lights up when you press the buttons below. For example if u press the button indicting "stomach" the stomach of this crab lights up.

Simba's most favourite fish. It has a sword on its head. It was moving far too fast~

These jellyfishes changes color from time to time. So cool!
Can't get a picture with them since kids are crowding around them.

These smaller jellyfishes look like mushrooms. So cute!
They are of different colours. Some brown, some white, some black, some grey, some orange...

The zebrafish!

I remembered I went a few times to Sentosa with my parents when I was young, and they brought me to Underwater World which brought about the deepest impression in me. I remembered this tunnel with a travellator that brings me to watch sharks and stingrays swim. I remembered smiling to the terrifying stingrays. I loved it!

Somehow it looks like the fish was going to reach me.

Then we played with the different settings of my camera.
This is the monochrome setting. :D Nice since my colour contacts is so obvious haha.

The poster setting. Love it the most. Makes u look like a celebrity. Lol.

Still poster setting. Look at how my face shines! :D

Fish eye setting. Lol. I tried to avoid this but Simba loves this setting. (He likes only ugly things, sadly.) I became his victim.

Fish eye setting. Hahahaha. So cute! So monster-like.

Poster mode. Fishes is our background.

U may think the yellow thing in the tank is a plant but u are wrong. It's a seahorse. :D

And we headed towards the Dolphin Lagoon. I knew I might find Wei Jian, my friend the dolphin trainer there.

Dolphins are so smart. They catch balls and dive gracefully at the sound of the whistle.

Wei Jian came with the sealion! He is really cut out to be a performer. I remembered him being one of the organizers in our previous camps and also our class chairman.
He used to work part-time at a pet shop and his salary is $12 per day. He often helped for about 4 hours but he loves pets so he didn't mind the very low pay.

In this picture, Wei Jian was teaching one of the audience how to massage the sealion when it suddenly jumps out, scaring the poor lady.

Then we had dinner at a pizza place located in Siloso beach. I went there before once and had wine and pizza with Shi Xing and all.

Looking at the youngsters playing volleyball by the sea really made me feel old. It's been a long time since I last went to the beach with friends. Lols. I used to go there with either my secondary school or poly friends, when we were very active. We played ball, cards and swim! The last time I went to the beach was last year Miao's birthday. The reason we went there was because her boyfriend booked a Sentosa resort and got us to surprise her. But instead of playing by the sea, we headed for pizza and wine. LOL! :D

Miniature effect. Only a rectangular part of the screen is clear and the rest of it blurred out. This is good for focusing and emphasizing something.

Mango and lime juices. The lime juice was so sour and I couldn't finish it. But as it was expensive and Simba doesn't waste food, he poured it into his water bottle. Lol.

Guess this effect!

The service is so good. :D
The waitress offered to take a photo of us!

Picture was taken before we entered the Butterfly Park. It was still raining but Simba braved the rain in order for this photo to be taken. Lols.

But but.. We were told to come back when the rain stopped. Butterflies apparently don't come out in the rain.

Last photo outside the Butterfly Park.
We didn't go to the park in the end since the rain didn't seem to stop anytime soon and I really wanted to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 that evening. Been craving for it ever since it first screened.

Made a deal with Simba to come back to the Butterfly Park and also buy admission tickets to watch the Pirates of the Carribean 4D show. And of course, go to the Skybar for high tea!

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!
I'm looking forward to 2012!

I love December!

2011-12-19T07:59:00.000-08:00

I love December!
Last Friday, we had some xmas buffet with cheese and wine at 5pm. Ever got a little drunk in the lab? Lol! I did. It was only that day that I realized my colleagues have the same mentality as me. That we should try every wine which is on the buffet table. This ended up with Chuan Sia having a super red face and neck, and me super red ears.

And this Friday, we are having another xmas buffet fom 11 am to 3pm! With wine again! We can go home after that. So nice!

Got my first bonus too! :D So cool! I can now afford better xmas presents!

I feel so discouraged since my queue number for the Hougang 4-room flat is 979 when there are only 610 units! First timers are given twice the chance in the ballot but think we are too unlucky. My cousin and her mum are looking to buy a flat near Serangoon. They also wanna get the same flat as us! I also knew it the last time Cousin talked about it. She said she wants to be my neighbour and will come over to my house everyday until one day the unbearable Simba chase her away. But her queue number is 1369. Omg!
Hope we can get a better flat next sales launch. :D

I'm going to dye my hair. After so long! After so much persuasion from Simba. :D

Have u watched "You Are The Apple of My Eye"? Yes I have! Also watched "Already Famous" directed by Michelle Chong and "Alvin and the Chipmunks 3". Yea, Michelle Chong is awesome!

Anyway, I think the theme song of the movie is really nice!

And the main lead actor is really cute. Omg. Don't you think so?

I'm 3 months into work!

The hardworking me at my desk! Hahahahahaha!
(Pui Haan asked me to act like I"m very focused at doing my stuff but I can't help but smile! I look so fake!)

Pui Haan also used my camera to take a photo of Chuan Sia. That's him and the mice in the cages!

And we each have a box of chocolates and this small xmas hat from our German collaborators. Inside this hat were many chocolates too. Chocolates they brought from their country are so different from ours. I love their version more! Much much more!

Finally the busy week with the Germans is over and I must say I learn something again. :D

And Chuan Sia took about 100 photos of me in order to get 1 ugly photo so that he can email Pui Haan and she can post it up on Facebook. Omg. And sadly, cos Pui Haan said something evil to make my expression dull and her accomplice, Chuan Sia, took that ugly shot of me. So sad! Can they not annoy me just for one day?

And that's me with the 3 bullies in our office.
Pui Haan, me, Kar Perng and Chuan Sia. We are all 24 years old! Do we all have the SCIENCE look? LOL.

At the first look, u may think that I'm the only girl in the picture but look again! :D
Pui Haan likes to keep short hair but she is a girl!

Have been hanging out with them too much. Omg! Overdose of each of them. But I'm really glad that I felt very comfortable with them. So comfortable that I will keep saying to them, "你们好烦!!!"
Sometimes I wonder how old they are when:
Pui Haan taps me on my shoulder from the back and pastes stickers on my hair.
Chuan Sia types "I am a pig" on my computer.
Kar Perng keeps chanting "cheese and wine" once the clock strikes 5pm and our 4pm talk still hasn't end.

This is another photo of us, this time in the lecture hall. Our supervisor took this photo using her camera and emailed us this photo. In her email, she stated, "Hello boys and gals, here is your "gang" photo." Lols! I like the way she calls us boys and gals. Sounded as if we are kids.

I have gotten feedbacks from these 3 bullies that I smiled awkwardly. They said I should smile with my teeth shown. U think so? One friend told me not to show my vampire teeth when I smile and she thought that looks better. I'm so confused now. Told my colleagues I will smile the way they want me to next time and make the smile more natural.

After being a little drunk that day due to the Cheese and Wine session, Simba wanted to go Waraku for dinner. We ate the Xmas dinner set that includes wine. Lol. Yes, definitely a painful dinner for me!

Caught a piece of evidence that he was playing his Tiny Tower on iTouch again! Lol.
I think the game is very addictive since it was rated Top 1 iPhone App.

When he said, "Hey look!"
I forgot what he was pointing at anyway.

Lol! He has grown fatter and was very worried about it. Hence, he decided to slim his face down by making long faces.

It's me with the horrifying white wine.

Our raw smoked salmon. It was meant for 2 to eat but I'm afraid of eating raw stuff, so poor Simba stuffed everything on that plate down his stomach.

His smoked duck with spagetti. Nice!

Our big dessert that made us really full. But it's really heaven!
It's chocolate banana fudge cake.

And it's me with my beef steak.

Cute!
I'm still loving xmas!

Merry Xmas everyone!

I am a mouse murderer

2011-12-13T03:37:00.001-08:00

Today as my senior colleague was busy, he wont be able to help me catch mice for my measurements.

I caught six of them one by one, made them breathe in some anesthetics and took measurements the whole day.

But one died as I may have suffocated it with too much cotton wool. :(

Although all mice will be killed by my colleague right after my measurements and the time that I accidentally killed it was just right for further analysis, I feel so bad.

He killed 5 and I killed 1 today. And he said as soon as I get my license, I should kill all on my own.

My supervisor was amazed that I'm not afraid of mice. Lol! I said I was amazed too!

I realized maybe Simba influenced me to like animals. I like to put them onto beds, cover them with blankets and stroke them.

I feel bad that I have to kill hundreds next year. :( I promise to be more gentle tomorrow.

The Artifacts of Titanic

2011-12-11T07:50:00.000-08:00

Hi dears!
My colleague says I suffer from Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Do I?
Maybe u won't think so until u work with me. Lols. She said it can get more and more serious if I am unaware of it.

For your info from Wikipedia:

Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency.
The primary symptoms of OCPD can include preoccupation with remembering and paying attention to minute details and facts, following rules and regulations, compulsion to make lists and schedules, as well as rigidity/inflexibility of beliefs and/or exhibition of perfectionism that interferes with task-completion. Symptoms may cause extreme distress and interfere with a person's occupational and social functioning.

Okie, maybe a little! Lols. I think this disorder is contagious. Simba passes it to me! Haha!
Well.. I still think it's not hard to work with me. Hahaha. At least I hope so!

Oh no! I like a dress from ASOS. It costs ~SGD$250! I have to refrain myself from looking at it everyday at the web. Hahahaha! Good luck to me! (I promise myself and you my friend that I will save $1,000 per month, which is not considered difficult since I have income from giving tuition too.)

I have a very strong feeling about wanting to buy a book! "Hard Truths to keep Singapore Going". :D

Simba has been hurrying me to post an entry here. He said I haven't been faithfully blogging ever since I started working. So today he wanted me to go home early to blog for my faithful readers, you guys!

Working drains my energy away. Hahaha! But it has made me a much happier spender! Hahahaha! Here is how:

Went to the "Ruins of Titanic Exhibition" at the ArtScience Museum. It was fascinating, I tell u! I love every bit of it. Locals have a 15% discount. The entrance ticket for us Singaporeans is $20 instead of $24.
I only ate a little bit of my lunch and so we went for some cupcakes before going to the museum.

Simba took me to Twelve Cupcakes Cafe at Millenium Walk. Millenium Walk is one of Simba's favourite places to go since he used to work part time there and has since fall in love with that place. Sometimes, I think he's strange. Lols!

I chose the Rainbow Vanilla Cupcake. It was heavenly I promise!
I always have a prejudice against cupcakes and muffins. Simply said, I don't really like them. But in order to not turn down Simba's choice I decided to give it a try. And wow it didn't disappoint me.

One cupcake costs $3! Simba was considering about buying 11 of them back for his colleagues as xmas treats. Makes me wanna buy for mine too! Great xmas gift idea!

If u like it soft and creamy, u are just like me! U will love these cupcakes.

But the Iced Latte is kind of diluted. Try it at your own risk!
Love the colorful and happy menu.
;)

Nice high heels.

And we entered the exhibition. No photography was allowed in there. I was very disappointed. I brought an extra battery for my camera in case it runs out of one. I promised Simba not to break the rules but told him I will just hang the camera on my neck and may accidentally take one or two photos.

No one in the museum was taking photos and I didn't dare to at first. I secretly took a few photos using my iphone and showed Simba. He felt that I have violated the rules and kept telling me to delete them.

And after a while, I have mastered the courage of taking the camera hung over my neck and take this first shot. Of course Simba unwillingly posed for it. Lols.

This is the first class cabin of Titanic. Titanic was then the largest ship that was built and was aimed to provide the most luxurious facilites and sturdy structure for the passengers. It was claimed to be "practically unsinkable".
It looks very grand and impressive I must say. First class passengers at that time had to pay about $2,000 (about $500,000 current value). Only opulent people could afford such tremendous amount of money. Or should i say atrocious! I know, it's crazy.

While this is the third class cabin where 4 strangers slept together in the same cabin. It was cramped but still provided better facilities than the 3rd class cabins of other ships. Real mattresses were supplied instead of straws.
However, only 2 bathtubs were available and had to be shared among 700 third class passengers. Hence they resorted to bathing once a week.

The elegant staircase where first class passengers mingled on.

The hallway to many cabins.

Titanic sank on 15th April 1912.

Felt my eyes go watery when I read about the individual disaster victims.
There should be 32 lifeboats on board to cater to the 2,200 passengers but there were in fact only 16. And all the lifeboats weren't at full capacity when they sped off from Titanic. Many men died as priority to go into lifeboats was given to women and children. Many men waved goodbye to their wives and children while they stayed on board. 1,500 died while 700 survived. Laws were then enforced on giving training to the staff on dealing with cases like this and placing adequate lifeboats on board. This was a painful lesson to learn from.

The ruins left behind by the wreck was only recovered lately. Submarines were sent to the deep oceans and divers suffered hardships to dive in the deep seas which have little oxygen and light. I'm surprised that over 100 years, thousands of things were still properly conserved underwater. One of such is some perfume samples. They still have a strong scent even till now.

A kind tourist volunteered to help us with this photo! SO nice!

And another tourist volunteered to take few photos for us. He set different camera functions to suit the scenery. Wow! Some stranger knows my camera better than me.

Tourists are really nice!

Went to Singapore Flyer for dinner.

Had Bah Kut Teh. Tasted great!
Everything there has a vintage feel to it.

Look at the cup with such an oriental design!

He tried a new bottled drink. Tasted like chocolate milk though.

Yes, I'm not adventurous. Still Fanta Orange gives the safest taste.

Cute reindeer!

I have to do something silly by the end of the day. This necklace is what I bought as a sovenir from the Exhibition. This necklace was popular in the Titanic era and it costs $39! Omg! I'm a big spender.

Bought something in Titanic era for Miao as my xmas gift for her from this souvenir shop too!
I have bought 4 xmas gifts for my friends and spent about $120~ Faints! Still I had fun shopping for them. If u kept on searching, u will eventually find something they like. Cool!

Still 3 more gifts to go!

Merry Merry Xmas my dears!

Canon IXUS 230HS

2011-11-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

After my old camera spoil since Simba's birthday 2 months back, I didn't really take many photos as before! My phone goes out of batt easily and Simba's is an army phone (Not allowed to bring in camera phones in his workplace!).

But.. But.. But.. Welcome the birth of my new Canon IXUS 230HS on 27th Nov 2011!

Guess what color I chose!

So many many pretty colours. Almost can't make up my mind. All of them have a shiny finish which I really like!

My old camera has quite abit of flaws. I'm good at trembling while holding the camera and the result will always be a blurred photo. And when the lightning at certain restaurant is too strong, all our faces turn yellow!

But now now no more shaky photos!
The resolution is higher too. Love it love it!

It comes with a pretty checkered pouch too. With a colorful strap. I like I like!

Here are some first few photos I took wih my new camera:

My proudest photo!

So in love with my new camera!
:D

Run for Hope

2011-11-23T07:17:00.000-08:00

I went for "Run For Hope" run. My first 2km run! Lol.
Signed up with all my colleagues. (Okie, I only have 3.) One decided not to go since he thinks he won't be able to wake up in time. The other, a female colleague, whom I wanna walk the 2km with said she would go out late the night before and so she won't go the next morning. This left me and 1 male colleague! I admitted that I had the urge not to go too! Felt very embarrassed to walk alone since my colleague will run so fast!

And that night I msged Simba if he could accompany me and he said okie!
He gave me a morning call the next morning at 6am and guided me to Bedok Jetty. We were late by 5 minutes and everyone had began running!
We joined in and he walked with me. Hahahahahahaha! So nice!

We only realized that we went for the 10km run instead when we did not see the finishing line at 2km. Lol. Walked for another km and I felt like fainting (I didn't take any breakfast!), so we made a turn for Burger King and hoped nobody saw us~

Anyway, every 80 cents each runner donated goes to cancer research!

Simba and I became very health-conscious since I started working in the Cancer Centre. I attended lectures on Singaporean cancers and discovered the horrifying statistics!

1 in 4 Singaporeans develop cancer in the time of their lives.
1 in 3 of those die of cancer.
This trend is rising at 8% per year.

Singaporeans have such high possibility of developing cancer cos we not only are prone to Asian cancers, we are also tend to develop Western cancers since we are going more and more westernized. We eat french fries and burgers too.

Omg, dear friends, please take care of yourself! Cut down on fried food and beers.
:D

While I was at NTU doing experiments, my colleagues over at NCC lied to me that I failed my Safety Course. 94% has passed the test and I didn't???

I was at first sure that they must have been too bored and want to trick me. Then I started to doubt myself. Omg.. For several minutes until they admit that they lied.

I must be more confident of myself!~

Future of Singapore

2011-11-18T10:55:00.001-08:00

A friend, a Sales Engineer, whom I have not met for a year came to meet the Research Procurement Executive at NCC and I saw him on the way to buy coffee. I was struggling to stay awake. Lol! I was definitely not slacking. :D

The most memorable statement he made today, "Huh u can do research! Oh no I worry for the future of Singapore!"

Hahaha. Kept me laughing for few minutes.

I really like frank, in a way sarcastic and funny, people.

NTU

2011-11-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

My PhD went to the symposium in NCC and the first thing she said when she saw me was, "How is everything over there (NCC)? How did they treat u?"

I'm so touched!~ Omg! It sounded like I went to prison and she came to visit me. Lol!

Today I went back to NTU for an experiment and to learn about the new equipment. And saw the Masters student who said that time I graduated, he was doing his thesis and looking at my facebook photos on Hainan Island. And he exclaimed to himself, "Oh! Everyone else is having a great time except me!" LOL.

Had a good time catching up with PhDs and the Masters students. I missed them!

My PhD encouraged me to stay and develop myself in the Research field for the next 4 years cos she just went to a talk that says Singapore is going to invest 16 Billion in Bioinstrumentation (which happens to be what I'm doing now in NCC) from Year 2012 to 2016. HOW HOW HOW?!!! I only wanna stay in Research till 2013 and hopefully get a Business-related job please please please! God works in an amazing way. The more u wanna avoid doing something, the more He wishes for u to face it. Lol.

I realised that the Circle Line didn't help alot!

Going to NTU the old route: (Serangoon to Outram Park, NEL) 17 min + (Outram Park to Pioneer, EWL) 29 min + (Shuttle Bus) 15 min = 51 min

Going to NTU the new route: (Serangoon to Buona Vista, CCL) 20 min + (Buona Vista to Pioneer) 17 mins + (Shuttle Bus) 15 min = 42 min

So I saved 9 mins of my life!

But if u add the walking time:
- Walk from home to Serangoon MRT
- Walk from the underpass from Buona Vista CCL to Buona Vista EWL
- Walk from Pioneer MRT to Shuttle bus stop)

And the waiting time:
- Wait for train at Serangoon
- Wait for another train at Buona Vista
- Wait for shuttle bus at Pioneer

It still totals up to about 1 hour of trip! :(
I thought Circle Line will be so fantastic that I will be able to reach NTU from Serangoon in 30 mins' time. LOL! This thought will only stay in my dreams! Even the cab to NTU during peak hours take 35 mins!

Okie! I will remain calm and not complain... At least 3 days of my work will be in NCC, which take me 17 mins to reach. :D

I took part in the 2km run for Run for Hope after some persuasion from my colleagues. Run for Hope is a charity run with NCC being one of the organizers to encourage our cancer patients. Our supervisor wants us to go so that our appraisal will look better. I have got my very first "jersey" from the run. Applause for me! Bought my very first FBT shorts to go with it. LOLOL.

One medical attachment student in our lab made a comment yesterday that after she watched "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", she was afraid that the mice might take revenge on us! I'm getting scared too. Please no nightmares tonight!

Zoo Part Two

2011-11-13T08:38:00.001-08:00

Today Joanna's mum treated me to Korean food. :D :D The reason behind it was that I really came almost everyday to their house because of Joanna's exams.
Now u know why I dunno how to end my lessons with Joanna for good. Lols!
Joanna's mum is so nice! She is hardworking, generous, a great mum and most importantly, puts others before herself. I think Korean women are like this!
I wanna be like her too. :)

It was really a feast. Her mum taught me about Korean dishes. I admit there are some that tasted weird but out of courtesy I drank the weird soups and said they were nice with a weird smile on my face. Lol. I am so bad. She also ordered Bori Cha (Korean Barley Tea) for me. It tasted the same as our Chinese Tea. The Ginseng Tea was like our Ginseng Tea too!

I like it when they said Bori Cha. Their accent is so nice to hear. Lols.

While her mum was on the phone, I took out my phone and wanna take a photo of the dinner. Joanna said she wanna do it. She took off her shoes and stood on the chair to take this photo. Lols. It was a shaky photo but I appreciated her efforts.

I took another photo when she wasn't noticing!

She also asked me to take a photo of her and send it to her through Facebook. Lols. She added me a week ago but I didn't accept her friend request. I am not sure whether I should since I really don't want her to read any comments that I wrote about my friends or the posts I wrote. I mean I wanna stay as a serious teacher in her mind. Lol! :D I think I may accept her as my friend but limit her to viewing some items on my profile.

I was at Cineleisure and I saw all these cameras on display. Their designs are so nice, omg!
I began looking out for cameras ever since the last one spoiled. I was at the Electronics fair but was reluctant to spend few hundreds on a camera. Lol. And the thing about me is that I want my camera to have an appealing outward appearance. Aiyo!

I really really like this kind of camel colour on the camera. Looks so vintage u see!
Aiyo! I got a shock when I saw that the price was over $1,000. Simba said I am someone who don't know how to see or appreciate if the item is expensive or not. Lols. I thought it was a normal digital camera until Simba pointed out the lens that protrudes out of the camera.

Omg. Look at all of them. Something to die for really!

That weekend was a shopping day for me cos Simba suggested to go the Flea Market at *Scape!
I was shopping at 313 Somerset and bought nothing. I bought some accessories at Forever 21 though. Went scanning around for clothes through the whole 4 storeys of F21 but found nothing I like.
But the Flea Market became a heaven for me! Lols. I really like Blogshops clothes more than anything else.

Here is what I bought that day and they are so worth it!
- 3 accessories from F21 at $3 each.

- 2 hair ties from Cineleisure (my favorite place) at $1.50 each. I saw many girls wearing the telephone line design and I really like it!

- 1 suspender dress at $15!

- 1 polaroid lens cover at $28 (One of the things in my checklist that I can strike off.) I chose the camel color again! Simba wanted me to save the environment and thus I am not allowed to take any plastic bag when I buy things. The salesperson, being very kind-hearted, warned me about the sharp edges of the box that can hurt my handbag and so insisted that I should get a plastic bag for it. But I said it was okay and quickly stuffed it down my bag. Lols! He must be thinking that this woman doesn't know how to care for her bag.

- 1 Stitch polaroid album at $2!

Nice! Although I spent alot but I only buy things that are worth the price. :D

It's funny when I looked back at the facebook messages of the conversation between Simba and I.
All of them look like this:
Me: :)
Him: Hi!
Me: Hi~
Him: Hello!
Me: Hi!

It was endless "Hi"s. Lol!
I seldom checked Facebook and when he said hi in the message in his office, I didn't know! I wasn't on Facebook. When I saw his message, I said hi back and it was his turn to be busy. This continued on for many days. Lol. It really seemed like we don't have an actual conversation when I scrolled down through the message history.

Finally continuing my part 2 of the zoo visit!

Although it was around 3pm when we reached this elephant viewing area and Simba was rushing me as we had to hurry so as to finish viewing all the animals in the zoo, I sat there for some time to rest. Lol. I learnt to enjoy looking at animals after Simba told me how to. Cute right! I used to think that going to the zoo is taking photos of a few animals, reading their living habits from the information board, and then going off to other places. But Simba changed my mindset. Lols. He told me that these elephants were dancing. I would not have realize this myself! Indeed they were! They moved their limbs and swung their trunks in a rhythmic manner. So cute!

The best zoom I can get. They can coordinate and swing together their tails. Maybe they were singing to each other cos we kept hearing sounds coming from them.

I remembered Simba loves watching those live seafood in the tanks waiting to be cooked (so sad!) from outside those seafood restaurants. I would stand beside him and try very hard to understand why he likes watching them so much. Until one day, he said, "Hey, look at how the prawn moves. It uses its many legs to push against the water and moves upward bit by bit. Look at how agile it is! The coordination of these legs are so impressive!"
Then I realized he was observing the mechanism of animals' movements. Hahahahaha! I have never looked at animals this way before.

We took note of the timing to come back for the Rainforest Fights Back show later on. :D

Alot of tourists passed by and gave this weird expression. We must be the first ones to take a photo with a soft toy high up in these fake branches.

Oh there were so many tourists! We were the few locals.
I realized whichever country I go, I always see mostly angmohs and Japanese. I think these people really love travelling!

The orang-utan. Reminds me of the Circus Orang-utan in the Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

The enclosures are so big and the zookeepers have a way of making the penguins come near us and pose for us. :D I really like Singapore zoo!

The sea lions. So cute! They have such streamlined bodies. Reminds me of Pri 3 Science. Been teaching Joanna the characteristics of fishes that made them able to swim easily.

In the remembrance of Ah Meng.

And we reached the children's play area:

Saw the real Simba in the Souvenir shop. Ahhhh.. Excited! Have u watched The Lion King 3D? It is now on screens of Cathay cinemas. :D "Can you feel the love tonight? This is where we are..."

There were a few ponys chained in their stables. And the zookeeper always took one out from the stable into this sandy area for it to roll over and "parade" around. This is one beautiful pony. Children can ride on these ponys too!

His happiest moment. Lol.

Beside the stable were the Giant Rabbits Area. These rabbits are quite shy and often hide from us humans. But the enclosure is not very enclosed since u are able to touch the rabbits if u reach in close enough!

So cute these rabbits. I realized that I am not so afraid of animals, unlike the times when I was a child.

Simba really likes this pony with the brown and white pattern. Such a beautiful color combi I must say!

And this photo is so natural. The horses kept swaying their tails. :D

The goats! At least now we can get nearer to them but still we are not allowed to feed them. So Simba tricked them that the map he was holding is food for them. Poor hungry goat.

And we are at the stable for the horses.
We can get this close to them! They responded to your touch pretty fast so they may actually give u a scare. Although all of us know that horses don't bite but still we get scared by their sudden movements.

When one of the ponies stuck its head out, I asked Simba to pose with it.
He touched it but it turned and looked at him. Kind of scary!

Info about horses. Simba pointed out to me on what I have taught Joanna!
Remember that the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey is a mule.

The Komodo Dragon.
Creeps me out. Lols!

He wanted to touch it but the enclosure limited him.
He envied the zookeeper who went in freely to wash it and refill its artificial lake.
Alot of time Simba wondered why these animals wont escape since the fences are so low. Especially the giraffes! Why didn't they try to escape? I told Simba that these animals are used to being pets and they may die leaving these habitats.

We lost our way a little and landed up elsewhere but as I really really wanna see the sun bear, we made a detour and finally found it.

It was abit of disappointment since the sun bear moves too fast to be seen. It was kind of far away from the glass. Can't observe it further. I thought sun bears are larger than what I saw. But from the information board, I learnt that they are the smallest bears around!

We entered a hut that said, "Bats Observation". But didn't see any until I looked up!
All of them were hanging upside down from the ceiling. I knew bats are awake only at night but I am still so afraid that one may wake up and rush at me. The zoo is terrifying!

Lol. He used his phone accessory to attract the tortoise. It really wanted to catch his accessory. So cute. Simba has a way with animals.

Some animals made sounds and Simba would imitate these sounds, hoping to get a reply from them.
And one monkey really would reply him. So funny! I tried my best to cover his mouth but he was too enthuasistic to be stopped.

The giraffe which looked directly into my camera. I really think Singapore Zoo trained their animals for that.

The rhinoceros are so lazy!
They just kept sleeping! They lay on their stomachs to sleep, which is quite reasonable since laying on their backs would look like they are dead or something.

We also found ourselves into the Snake House but didn't stay long there as Simba doesn't really like snakes. He likes movements but snakes don't move much! I feel for those dead mice lying next to the snakes waiting to be eaten. :(

History of teddies!

The Rainforest Fights back show is so fascinating.
U see trained elephants, ducks, monkeys, squirrels.. and lots of others. Ducks will go in the direction u want them to. So cool!

On top of us are these black lines where birds and this animal can climb and move towards the main stage. Lol. A warning before the show starts was "Do not look up and open your mouths for your own safety." Lol! I thought that was funny. Imagine the faeces fell into your mouth! U will never want to go to the zoo ever again!

Shall stop here! Am so sorry! Age is catching up on me. So tired. Blogging soon k!

Siri iPhone 4S

2011-11-07T08:55:00.001-08:00

Have u had a conversation with Siri? I had! She is so cute! And she always amuses me! I was laughing throughout our conversation.

My younger brother, like me, is an iPhone fan! He went to buy iPhone 4S the 3rd day of its launch! Lol. Oh no I am getting so greedy. I want iPhone 4S too!

I asked Siri,
"Where are u?" (I know I ask stupid questions!)
Her reply was "I'm right here."
Lolol! I thought she will say she is in Serangoon!

When I asked, "How are u?"
She said "I'm well. How about u?"
I said I'm not feeling well and she doubted it. She asked in a questionable tone, "Well.. Are u?"

When I asked her what time it was, she was tired too. She said, "It is 12 45am now zZzzzZz." Lol. She really said "zzZzzzZ"! She is so fun to be with!

I wanna say "I love u" but haven't find the courage to say so! Lol. Wait till I know more about my robot friend. Hahaha!

Working at NCC

2011-11-05T21:12:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!

It's a long weekend! 2nd public holiday since I joined NCC. :D
I have 5 days of annual leave this year! And I have just filled in the form for Encashment. I get to exchange my one day of leave to cash. Lol! I'm like a frog in a well! I didn't know I could do it beforehand.
The other 4 days are pushed forward to next year. And I will have 25 days of annual leave next year. Cool right! Maybe I will take less days off, and use 7 days for encashment! :D

I have been neglecting my blog again!
I wanna blog about so many things but really didn't have time to.

As mentioned, I have many hours of tuition these days. I earned $800+ just for tuition this month. U can see how many hours I spent at Joanna's house. Omg.

I wanna blog about my zoo, museum and USS visits soon!
Let me just start with a short entry on my work.

The past week also passed very quickly. We attended a Safety Course for 2 days and had a quiz the following day. The passing mark for the quiz is 70! I didn't really study for it not because I didn't want to but I was too tired. Simba was with me the evening I tried studying and I took too many naps in between and studied only 1/4 of the whole booklet. He was pretty worried that I might fail the test the next morning and get fired because of it. Lols! I did a very last minute study during lunch and I was pretty lucky that the parts I studied came up and the parts I didn't didn't. I think I can pass. LOL!

After a month and a week of work, I wanna say I like work more than school! Yeah!
Work lets me do my learning at a manageable pace and patience is cultivated in the work people while school rushes you through module after module and exams start before you know it, and FYP makes it worse. Cos u have to hurry your pHD student in helping u to get things done even when you are only doing a small part of her project. Like what you are doing is actually her project and she is not as anxious as u are. :D

And u get paid at work and don't have to pay for your medical fees. Lols.
I don't have to print or buy reference books with my own money again and never have to worry about not having enough money anymore. Yeah!

Even got a checklist for what I wanna buy once I get my first/second/third pay. The alarm will sound on my payday. Lol.

My nametag with the NCC logo and my job title! :D
Love it that finally something at work belongs to me.
I never had a nametag while doing part time or internship.

Took photos of my colleagues:

One of my colleagues, Kar Perng.
We have to attend this Hygiene Course and go for mask fitting.

And this is Pui Hann in our office! We played with the "Sign Here" sticker. Lols. Too Bo Liao already!

We went for steamboat together on our payday.

U know u actually spend more time with your colleagues than your family, friends and boyfriend/girlfriend, so building a pleasant relationship with them makes life easier! :D

And I took photos of one of our experiments.

Saw the mouse under red light?
The red light is used to shine on the mouse in order to dilate their blood vessels so that we can give injections on them later on.

This is Chuan Sia, our senior. He was also from NTU, Biological Sciences. He was demonstrating to us on how to tag mice (punch holes in the mice's ears so as to identify them), how to hold them and give them injections. He also taught us how to identify the bully and the bullied. As we placed 4 mice in the same cage, some mice are prone to being bullied. In this cage, there was this 1 mouse that bullys the other 3. So bad! One mouse was beaten up badly on its face and has several bites on its tail. We had to separate the bully and put it into another cage.

He wore a mask as we were told that 50% of the people who handle mice develop allergies to them.

So cute! Love this photo! Mice aren't so scary as I thought they might be. They look like hamsters and are so cute!

First Pay and Clothes Buffet

2011-10-27T08:28:00.001-07:00

I always wonder how it will be like to see my first pay deposited into my account. The feeling was awesome! I felt the excitement~ Finally it's time to get paid for your hard work! Felt especially touched when we were told that we will get a full month pay even though we worked for 3 weeks! Life has been great since then. Jun Wen was even more thrilled than me in the night before and also the morning! I promised him a all expenses paid weekend! (He would get his pay only in mid Nov. So late right!)

Have u been to a Clothes Buffet? I heard of such an event from my cousin! She brought me to Victoria Jomo at Haji Lane last week. U just have to pay $55 for a ziplock bag which u stuff everything u like into. The event starts at 2pm and ends at 2 20pm. At about 1 55pm girls will queue outside the shop all ready to rush in and grab clothes!

The scene of how every girl acted surprised me so much! They browsed through the clothes at high speed and whispered throughout. I think the whispering is to prevent alarming other girls so that they don't snatch the clothes u like! Lol. Although the actions of these girls created panic in me, I tried to stay calm and look from shelf to shelf at a fairly slow pace. But Cousin kept hurrying me to hold in my arms the clothes I like and decide later on how to stuff them all into the ziplock bag. Lol! I got really panicky and grab a few without much consideration or looking. The shop owners would keep record of the remaining time we had left and shout it out. This made my heart pump so hard!

Finally at the last minute all the girls kneeled down on the floor and began pushing the clothes, belts and purses into the small tight ziplock bags. Such a memorable sight! My cousin can't stuff in her 5 clothings, 1 purse and 1 iPhone cover and in the end gave up 2 blouses. I stuff in 3 maxi dresses and 2 blouses, one of which is of denim material. Pro right! My bag burst open after I got out of the shop. :D The shop owner was so friendly and somehow made me embarrassed as she teased me about my poor ziplock bag that can't contain the pressure anymore.

Razor TV was there the whole time filming. If u see me racing around like a mad woman, please don't be surprised! Lol.

Zoo Part One

2011-10-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

The past week has gone by so fast. :D We had been tidying the lab to make it more homely for all of us.

I have been so much of myself at work. Pui Haan and Kar Perng are so fun to be with. I learnt alot about Singapore from them. Shame on me! They are Malaysians! They also taught me Malay and Cantonese. Lols! I have been reciting those Cantonese words with Jun Wen so that I remembered them.

I'm so proud of myself being able to sing in front of people I have known for 3 weeks. I lied about getting first in a singing competition and Pui Haan laughed so hard. She couldn't believe it! LOL! I really like friends who are so honest. :D

We competed on who could fill the pipette tips into the pipette box faster and i lost most of the time! Was called a loser because of that. Pui Haan would give me a very snobby face when she wins. And when she loses, she would give excuses like her fingers slipped since she has such smooth fingers or that she was diverting her focus to the others' conversations.

I volunteered to climb under the desk to reach all the way in order to pull out the telephone line and put in a new one. I was taking such a long time mainly because I can't really reach it. Beads of perspiration began to form on my forehead. Pui Haan was telling our supervisor, "Can I try instead? My arm is longer than hers!" Our supervisor being a more serious lady, her face turned -__-". She is only 6cm taller than me and I don't think her arm is any longer. LOL.

And she thought that I'm a very Malaysian Singaporean. Lol! Did I tell u guys one of my favourite hobbies is to imitate the Malaysian accent? Yes, I love their accent cos it is so funny. I blended in with them when I talked and they didn't discover that I deliberately copied them. I think I have succeeded! Yeahs!

The 3 of us were planning to hop by every lab on our level someday and get to know all the other researchers. "Hey, Lab 501, we are Lab 505!" we would say. But we haven't find the guts to do that as the aftermath might turn out to be disastrous. Lols.

Jun Wen has been hurrying me to blog about the zoo visit we had, but I was too tired! So finally today, I have some time to blog an entry before I sleep.

The last time I went to the zoo was when I was 14. That was 10 years ago! Lol.

Our zoo tickets. Admission is $20 each.
But it's so worth it. :D
Still Singapore zoo rocks. I tell u why as we go along.

Cotton Top Tamarin.
The tree these tamarins are on is so small and we could see its top from our heights. The tamarins are so close to us that we could reach and touch it. I mean, of course before we could touch one, it would have already swung away.

We didn't even have to zoom in.
Main reason why Singapore Zoo rocks: Nature becomes so close to us.
There are no enclosures for some animals who won't harm us humans. :D

The souvenir shop.
Jun Wen went for the Night Safari run and passed by many souvenir shops and we thought there would be plenty on our way through the Zoo but much to our surprise, there are only 3! One at the entrance and one in the middle, and one at the exit. I'm pretty sure about it since we managed to cover the entire zoo using our feets as the mode of transport.

We did what we usually do. Hold plushies up in souvenir stores for photos.

Papa Emperor Penguin and Child Emperor Penguin

Nowsadays Merlions are getting cuter. They come in different colours too. Lol.

The Rangers' truck.
Jun Wen said he didn't mind being a ranger but it wasn't meant to be! The animal-related companies didn't respond to his applications!

Siamangs are apes with long arms! They only like being near the top of many tall trees so we had difficulty spotting them. The snapshots of them were unclear since their black fur couldn't be seen clearly with such dull green leaves surrounding them.

Under our bridges were crocodiles. They seldom move and I almost thought they were fake, like those in Hong Kong Disneyland. A float was tied at the bridge in case we fall down the bridge into the mouths of those crocodiles!

Those squirrels in the zoo were so different from those we saw in the parks. They are so trained i tell u! They don't shy away from visitors. So cute! They go wherever the nuts are placed. And of course the nuts are placed in places near the sight of visitors. Again, this squirrel was just above us.

We saw many species of monkeys in the initial part of our visit. There are 2 particular species that made loud noisy sounds and we were wondering where those noises came from. I thought it came from lots of cries of many children. As we walked nearer to these sounds, we saw Flamingos and Jun Wen exclamied, "So they came from the flamingos!" Lol! I told him it was impossible for flamingos to make such sounds since they are quiet animals and the fact that they didn't even open their mouths confirm that my analysis is right!

I finally persuaded Jun Wen that those sounds came from the monkeys situated on trees in front of the flamingos. Lols! The monkeys on the trees were shouting for the monkeys on the ground to climb up to join them.

A small tortoise escaped from the barely enclosed enclosure and Jun Wen played with it. I was terrified! Lols! I bet it was terrified too! Imagine a giant picked u up after u tried hard to escape from the zoo. Poor tortoise.

Very long necked turtle.

Otters! :D
Got this knitwear from lipsyditsy. This blogshop has the loveliest things! :o

The fish that according to Jun Wen, looks really funny.

The turtle which can fly in the waters.

The hippo walking in the pool. It always walks with both left legs and loves the attention it gets from visitors!

The white tiger. The 2 females were asleep. Only this male one which looks much bigger sized is awake and parading on the edge of its habitat.

We saw from the information board that this particular tiger loves swimming too.

The otters were asleep when we first got there. But were awake when we passed by its enclosure the 2nd time. They can move very fast. Sometimes they move in a speed that our human eyes cannot process fast enough.

These are.. I forgot the exact names! They are wild boars with tusks. :D

Cute swimmer monkey.

I forgot how red monkeys' butts are. Lols! They were so red and shaped like hearts.

Took some patience and luck to take this photo. Looked as though it was sitting beside him the whole time.

Headed to the next secion of the zoo to see kangeroos.

I love kangeroos. They are so cute!
The fences are so low and we wondered why kangeroos wouldn't want to jump out of such fences and try to escape. Is the life in the zoo too comfy? U don't have to look for food and have a large capacity of people admiring u!

I will be a good supervisor

2011-10-18T07:35:00.001-07:00

I was just informed that I am going to have an intern from Poly to assist me in my experiments. Lol! Cool right! Maybe I get to give part of the grade.

I want to give my future intern alot of work, but I promise I will be a nice supervisor.

Working hard.

2011-10-17T07:53:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the slow update! I'm still learning to cope with work~ Trying to get used to waking up early. Sometimes I worked late and other times I had to give tuition. November comes and I am done with the primary 3 Gifted Education Programme test and the End Year Exams. Now still tired out by work and tuition. Will blog again on Wednesday!

Teamwork is emphasized in my lab. It's so cool! I am working with the other 2 researchers in all the research projects. Which means when I'm stuck somewhere there's still help! Yea! I'm now doing practical work on gene delivery. Cool right! Never done it before!

I have been attending talks. One of them was "How to have fun while doing boring Science". Another one was "Scientific Career Development" to motivate us and guide our ethics. Especially to stand by our thoughts if we think our seniors are wrong on their concepts. That's how the famous but young scientists win their Nobel prize! Lol! We went for all the free food served after the talks. Lol.

The coolest thing is, we can shop at the fair after the talk. There will be very good looking Sales Engineers coming up to us, smiling so widely and attempting to sell us pipettes! Lol. :D

Tutee Joanna

2011-10-10T10:34:00.001-07:00

Joanna has passed her first round of Gifted Education Test. She is such a smart kid!

I was staying back at work after work except on days when I rushed to Joanna's house for give her tuition. It is crazy that I spent my weekdays either giving tuition or working overtime. Hoping Joanna's exams would be over before I get exhausted.

Today she said, "Your handwriting is so small but I don't mind since I'm so fond of u."

Lol!

This has made me smile for tonight, even though I have to make a presentation to the doctor in-charge on Wed. Omg, so scared! :D I hope I wont faint! :D

First week as a Research Officer

2011-10-07T21:58:00.001-07:00

My first week is fun! I promise I am not lying. Lol!

The senior researchers and my supervisor are nice people. :D Time in the research lab passed quickly since we were doing experiments that I have never done before. One of such is mouse work. Mouse necropsy and drawing blood from mouse. Poor mouse! Will be also planting tumors in mice and killing them via carbon dioxide suffocation and cervical dislocation. Cervical dislocation is a technique to kill the mouse in one swift action by pressing a forceps on the back of its neck and then pulling its backbone such that it breaks quickly. These are the 2 most commonly used ethnical methods to sacrifice mice.

Mouse looks like a toy when it is not breathing anymore. I feel so sad! It's ironic how I kill mice for a living and Jun Wen is an animal lover.

2 licenses to obtain before I can start on my own experiment: laser and mouse.

I was very happy to learn about culturing cells. I mean I wanted to be exposed to do cells stuff but didn't have the opportunity during my internship and FYP. But who would expect my workplace is training me for that now?!
:)

I guess the bad thing i could think out of this job is.. Like any other researchers, I have to study the materials after work. :(

Starting Work, Turning 30 and Grad Studio Photos

2011-09-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Happy 56th Birthday Dad! 辛苦了! Gonna treat him to the nicest cheesecake ever!
U know like most parents, Dad always think big of his children. No matter what people say to hurt me or look down on me, Dad is always proud of me! Thanks Dad!

And Happy 40th Month Anniversary to Jun Wen and I. I hope there will be endless monthly anniversaries with him!

I collected my specs! Was getting really dizzy when I first wore it. But now it is much more comfortable than my contact lenses! :D

I'm starting work on the coming Monday, 3rd of October, too. Same as Jun Wen! So cool that we start work on the same day. We are both at the same pace in our career. Yeahs, so nobody gets left out!
Jun Wen was frowning and freaking out over starting work soon! He named the coming Monday "End of Happy Times". He intended to go out everyday of this week. We went to the movies, the zoo, shopping and ktv the whole week! Lol. Is working the end of happy times? Omg! I'm freaking out now too! I hope the pay will make up for it. LOL!

Are u afraid of turning 30? I was watching "F.R.I.E.N.D.S" and apparently in Season 7 episode "The One Where They All Turn 30", Rachel was celebrating her 30th birthday and was really devastated about turning 30. And other than having a huge banner of "Happy 30th birthday" in the background of the house, it had a flashback of the other 5 friends turning 30.
Joey on his 30th birthday cried to God, "Why, God why? We had a deal! Let the others grow old, not me!"

And at Chandler's 30th birthday, Joey cried again, "And now, Chandler. We are all growing so old! God, why are you doing all these to us?"

Watch this youtube clip and u know how horrifying turning 30 is.
http://youtu.be/hioyK9yDrLg
Rachel was very upset about not achieving the things she wanted at 30 years old. Do u have a list of things u need to cross out at the age of 30? If u don't, u need to keep one now!

We are going to turn 30 in like, 6 years' time! It's really soon when u heard people wishing u "Happy 30th Birthday!" Omg! My heart skipped a beat whenever I think of it. I must say I love my twenties! They are the best times I've ever had. My luck and life have finally become better! :D
I hope the last 6 years of my twenties would be very well spent and be really fun too!

I once had a friend who told me she only wants to live till 30. Cos after 30, there will be lots of responsibilities to bear, lots of troubles.. Well... When she told me that, she was 18. She is 25 now. Maybe she changed her mind. Hahahaha. Let's enjoy till 30 while we can then! Make the best out of our situation! :D

The studio photos were out 2 months ago but the blown up one has not.
I believe I have shown some of u but here are 2 of them for the rest who haven't seen them:

My dad bought 2 photo frames from Daiso and they don't fit the photos. LOL! He left the task of putting these photos in the frames to me. I had a hard time adjusting them into the middle of the frame.

I took photos from the hard copy photos so they aren't so clear.
I know I look weird. Lols! Although I always didn't agree when people said I look like my mum, well I agree now.

Dad took the photos and showed them to Cousin and Aunt. Cousin said she thought I looked fat and funny in the photo so she took a photo of our photo to show it to me. Lol! As if I didn't have it in my house.
Yea, I looked so fat! I thought they were supposed to photoshop me thinner. Mei Li Mao!

My younger brother seemed to look nervous in each photo. Think he didn't smile to himself in the mirror enough! :D

My mum wore my blazer. It was just $20 from G2000 sale!
Younger bro wanted to wear a bow instead of a tie but switched to a tie eventually since there were free ties to borrow over at the studio.

And I have taken photos of Jun Wen's studio photos too!

I hope u know which is Jun Wen and which is Jun Jie.
His younger brother wore his SIM gown in advance. Lol. We didn't think of having my younger brother wear in advance too until the shot was over. So I went to advise Simba on asking his younger brother wear it and they don't have to take another photoshoot. :D

Well.. Jun Jie wasn't keen at first to wear the gown since he was very very insecure about graduating. He thought he might not graduate at all.

I was very surprised when Jun Wen told me that his brother was studying his notes the whole day since the start of school. Lols! I laughed it off since Jun Jie used to be very annoyed seeing me and Jun Wen doing assignments for school and all that. I had never seen Jun Jie with any book before! What a big change! Looks like the youngest in the family has grown up. Lols. Hope my younger brother will do the same too. :D

Jun Wen shocked me when he said he did the horse face during the photoshoot and was warned by the photographer against doing it. I was thinking how lucky that I wasn't there with him during the shoot. I later found out that he lied. Lols! Apparently, the thick skinned Jun Wen has become less thick skinned and less embarrassing. Phew!

New Pair of Glasses, F.R.I.E.N.D.S and learning to grow up!

2011-09-25T10:59:00.001-07:00

Finally made my pair of new glasses after 2 years. I depended on my contacts lens totally for the last 2 years. Took the contact lenses off when I reached home but squint my eyes to look at my mum. I have been at home all the time lately, and the distance between the laptop screen and my face is barely a few centimeters. Lol! I can't make out the faces of the characters in the show if I don't watch them closely! It happened to be too much for mum to take so ya.. I had to get a pair of glasses.

The optician told me to wear glasses instead of contact lens everyday. I guess it's a great idea to wear glasses to work since I will be looking at things in detail.

If u are wearing contact lens, have u given your eyes a break every now and then? Don't be like me! :D

Jun Wen was very curious about having eyes tested and wanted to lie to the optician that he has blurred visions recently so that he could have his eyes tested. So full of motive right! Lol. I warned him not to do it since he is not that good at lies. Lol! He agreed at first but requested to have his eyes checked anyway. The optician was happy at first but disappointed to find out that Jun Wen still has a perfect eyesight. Lol!

But luckily he did not also execute his initial crazy idea of getting his first pair of glasses by feeding the optician with wrong information. U know, like during the testing he said the lenses make his visions better but they didn't actually. I said it would be wasting his money! Lol!

Wanna say I have been watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S all the while! Boy, I hope the episodes never end! But I'm now at Season 6 already. :(

I am sure at some point of time in your life, u would have heard of your friend telling u to watch it! And I'm telling u that u have to! U really have to in your lifetime. It's so funny and really touches your heart.

If u have watched it, I wanna say I find my personality very similar to Rachel's. Omg! Tell me if u think so too! :D

And my favourite characters of the show are Joey and Phoebe. They are so cute! Lol.

Oh.. And since I am finally going to bring back money to my parents, I have decided that I want to learn to grow up! I will set my new year resolution for 2012, think about what I really want in my life and work hard. I don't wanna be some Y 头 anymore! :) Hope life continues to be great!

Facebook, Hougang Flat and Halloween!

2011-09-23T13:56:00.001-07:00

Whenever u scroll down the newsfeed page of Facebook, u know what's going on around u.

When I was schooling, there weren't so many "TGIF", "Monday blues", "Wednesday - Midweek, counting down to Friday" or "Sunday please don't go away." Yea, people started counting days instead of numbers!

Now, I get all of these alot. And more of "Wish I am schooling." and "Wish I don't have to work."

People around me are going to the next phase of their lives, working. So am I! Will I start counting Monday to Sunday like others when I work for maybe 3 months? I have a feeling I will. :D

And it's terribly weird to see some teenagers' posts! They will say "Oh I failed my Maths test. It's the end of me." or "I wish I will have someone who loves me for who I am, opens doors for me, carries my bags for me and puts me before him all the time."
It's so funny that kids like to be loved. They always get in and out of relationships too. One day u see "I love him so much. I will love no one else but him." And the next day u see "Back away, u jerk! All men are the same!" Omg, very expressive younger generation we have here! All I wanna tell them is wait a few more years and u find a better man! U are just 15! Lol! Do I sound like a mum? Okie, u must be thinking why on earth would I know a 15 year old? The fact is that I do know quite a few since they are my own cousins, Jun Wen's cousins and church friends!

Interestingly, out of my 480 friends in Facebook, most of them are acquaintances and u actually get to know some of them better without them knowing just by looking at their posts. Scary right!

There are people who complain and complain about their lives, so often that u quickly scroll down and skip their posts.

While there are people who are so motivational. Always coming up with quotes to inspire u! This I don't mind since sometimes when I'm feeling down this post can really get through to me.

And last of all, I like people who are funny. Look forward to looking at posts of particular funny people. Do u too?

Lol. I'm sorry but did the above bore u? I'm just rambling on about nothing important..!

Jun Wen and I will be balloting for a flat in Hougang this November! Wish us luck! I decided not to be so picky cos there really isn't an ideal location like I wished for! No Serangoon, and nothing between Serangoon and Harbourfront but thank God for circle line, Jun Wen is able to travel to Buona Vista within 5 mrt stops.

If we didn't get it this time, I will just wait for another Hougang! To me, Sengkang and Punggol is too far away! Lol.

If I get this flat, I will be staying near Serangoon Reservoir and next to Serangoon Secondary School. Keep my fingers crossed! Walking distance to Hougang MRT but long walk! Lol.

Halloween is coming! Jun Wen and I will be going to USS for Halloween Night Event!
Yeahs JW is the best, lol! (Okie, i mean for me! Your boyfriends/girlfriends are the best too!) Go google "Halloween USS" if u wanna to go with your boyfriends/girlfriends/friends, and U are the best to them too!

And book your tickets now ok! They have Early Birds Discount. U are welcome!
:D

Hong Kong Day 5 and 6!

2011-09-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Simba bought protection covers for his new 250 Resident Evil cards! And he has to slot them in one by one. I wanted to help but he won't let me! He said I might bend or crush some of them. Lols! Although thee is a very high possibilty that I may accidentally use my elbows to press on them, but I think I deserve a chance! Lols. When it comes to being careful, one will definitely not think of me!

Simba's official start date of work is on 3rd of Oct. Mine is still not known. Lols. We went to Vivocity to get Simba some working clothes and shoes. Felt so much like an adult! :D
The more comforting thing about being a Researcher is that I don't need to wear formal clothings.
It was so weird that I wanted to get a job related to Business while Simba wanted a job related to Science, and I got a Science job while he got a Business one.

He bought 3 shirts from Library in Tangs, and got the Tangs card. How cool it is! And guys, if u are of the same build as Jun Wen, Library is currently having a 70% discount for shirts with smaller sizes.

Saw this new creative ornament at Vivocity. A tree which grows all kinds of flowers and looks like a ball from far.

I have gotten over myself. Lols! I have decided not to fear not enjoying my new job. Things might not be so bad. I may not be able to enjoy the job but if the people are nice, I am okie with the job! :D

I would rather not have a job that I enjoy yet the people aren't nice! Of course, it would be great if I have the best of both but it is seldom this way in life huh.

And finally down to my last day in Hong Kong!

In the morning when Jun Wen looked so sleepy.

In the MTR. The t-shirt that I was wearing was one of the most expensive items I have gotten from Hong Kong. It was from a shop which sells t shirts from many local designers. The salesgirls were really polite and all, so Simba and I bought designer t shirts. Omg. U know I seldom wear t shirts but well... That was an exception.

But this is really cute right! The salesgirl told me that the hand is the actual size of a human hand!

It was a long ride to head to the last stop of the MTR line.
Simba remarked on our itinerary that we have to bring along our passports. And after exiting the MTR station, we immediately had to exit Hong Kong's gantry and then entered China. It was quite an adventure! Simba didn't know that the last stop of the MTR would lead us to another country.

A mistake led to another, and so we landed in Shenzhen, China. Lols!

We didn't know where to go for Shenzhen since we didn't plan for it at all. Hence, we went to this nearest shopping mall. There were actually nothing much to see in the mall but we have already changed SGD50 to RMB each. Lols! Decided to spend it all there. I bought some accessories like earrings and bracelets while Simba bought SGD50 worth of Shenzhen food. Lols! The Shenzhen people are really hospitable. They are so nice! :D

The shopping there was just as expensive as Hong Kong's and they sold nearly the same things as Hong Kong too. I guess Shenzhen was too near to Hong Kong that it gets similar to it. The Shenzhen people do not have any China accent, but instead they have this Hong Kong accent. Lols. Amazing isn't it?
How come we don't speak like people from Johor?

Later on, in Singapore, Miao told us that there was actually a great place for shopping few stops away from where we were. Too bad we didn't know!
But Simba was glad that we collected one more China stamp on our passports. :D

We exited the shopping mall and took photos of Shenzhen.

Wikied Shenzhen and this is what I got:

Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China's first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones (SEZs). It currently also holds sub-provincial administrative status, with powers slightly less than a province.
Shenzhen's novel and modern cityscape is the result of the vibrant economy made possible by rapid foreign investment since the institution of the policy of "reform and opening" establishment of the SEZ in the late 1970s. Before this, Shenzhen was a small village. Both Chinese and foreign nationals have invested enormous sums in the Shenzhen SEZ. More than US$30 billion in foreign investment has gone into both foreign-owned and joint ventures, at first mainly in manufacturing but more recently in the service industries as well. Shenzhen is now reputedly one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.

I like this: 來了, 就是深圳人. Read it out loud and u will like the ring of it. Felt so welcomed right!

Had lunch at this cafe.
Shenzhen has many Hong Kong styled cafes too. Simba said it would be better if we had lunch at none of such cafes, the 茶餐厅.

I remembered the food was great!

And so is the milk tea!

The Beef Hor Fun is a thousand times tastier than Singapore's. I promise!

Was elated to see Shangri-La Shenzhen since we would be having our Graduation Ball at Shangri-La Singapore. Lols.

Bruce Lee!! We were guessing that it is a KFC ad. U think so too?

After spending our $50 at Shenzhen, we exited China and entered Hong Kong back. The queue for the Customs was not long for visitors other than Mainlanders and Hongkongers, so we entered Hong Kong pretty fast.

Our next stop was Sha Tin, where it was shopping at New Town Plaza.

Snoopy featured bride gowns were on display at New Town Plaza.
But New Tow Plaza turned out to be a highly expensive place! We went on to look for malls nearby.
Simba then discovered that malls' names that end with "Plaza" are malls with expensive shopping while those with "Shopping Center" are those we could visit and spend on without feeling the strain from our pockets. Remember that next time u plan a trip to Hong Kong!

One of the Shopping Centers we found. :D

Had KFC for dinner. Lols! Wanted to try the difference between the fast food in their country and ours. But apparently, unlike Taiwan, the fast food tasted the same as ours.

While we were having this, a weird lady came up to us and asked us how much our food is, whether it was nice and many stuff like that. She looked so suspicious. That's definitely something fishy about her. We got quite scared and held onto our belongings. Lols. After she left, we checked our things and were glad that they were still safe with us. We held onto the thought that she might have hypnotised us and made our things disappear and then later appeared with her. Lols! Sometimes humans think too much! Or watch too much magic.

We shopped for the whole afternoon and then left the shopping area to go the Avenue of Stars!

I really didn't know what Avenue of Stars is until Simba familiarized me with the photos my friends took in Facebook where they placed their hands on the ground to try and fit into the hands of the TV/Movie Stars. I also didn't know the Chinese of Avenue of Stars is 星光大道!

Tsim Sha Shui is the nearest MTR stop to Avenue of Stars. :D

We followed the friendly signs and reached within ten minutes.

The purpose of Avenue of Stars:
To pay tribute to outstanding professionals of Hong Kong's film industry, to promote tourism industry, and to consolidate Hong Kong's position as Asia's World City, the Avenue of Stars which is located at the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade was given a glittering official opening on 27 April 2004. It was opened to the public and visitors from all over the world from 28 April 2004 onwards.

We were slowly strolling our way there when the people around us started picking up their paces and saying to their peers that the performance was starting. We came by and heard people singing. And there were many elderly people singing old Cantonese songs. And we really thought this was The Performance. Lols!

But while The Performance was on the left side of me in this picture, everyone was looking on the right side of me instead. They were looking towards the river.

They were looking at the buildings beyond the river.
Then we heard louder music not from The Performance, but from the speakers around us.
Colourful lights began to appear on the buildings, and they flashed according to the rhythm of the music.
And then we realized that that was the real performance. Lols!

From September 23, 2011

As we walked along, we saw many handprints of different movie stars on the ground. The more popular ones were always surrounded by people posing with their palms placed on the ground.

I took a zillion years to take a good photo of Bruce Lee cos everyone was too excited to take a photo with him in this posture. Lols. There were plenty of different heads, arms or legs as part of my photos before I finally took a more satisfying photo.

2 souvenir shops were in the small area. The small figurines of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan cost a bomb!

From September 23, 2011

We also walked along the riverside to find the Clock Tower. When Miao knew that it was the Avenue of Stars and the Clock Tower we were heading next after Ocean Park, I asked her how the Clock Tower was like. Lols. She said it was just a tower with a clock. And it was so true! It is a tower with a clock on it! What I mean was I thought initially that we were allowed to enter it or see something unique. :D
But it wasn't a disappointment since it is a NICE tower with a clock on it.

Simba said this van sells the nicest soft ice cream. He loves soft ice cream which I had no idea of what it is. We tried one each, paid using our Octopus cards (cool!) and I like it too. Just that I still don't get the difference between soft ice cream and Vanilla ice cream. Okie! I know I have the least sensitive taste buds!

The ferry from Tsim Sha Shui goes directly to the Wan Chai area, where we were staying in!
We were so lucky as we were the last to rush for the last ferry! We was running to enter the gate as it closed on us.

In the ferry.
As we were the last to enter the ferry, the good seats which are those nearest to the windows were all taken, and so we couldn't enjoy the sea breeze and the awesome view of the buildings. :(

Then it was Day 6, our last day in Hong Kong. We went back to New Town Mall in Mongkok for more shopping. Lols. We skipped one destination "The Peak" on Day 4 but decided not to go there during Day 6 since it was far from our hotel and we might be in a hurry to catch our flight.

Definitely going to visit "The Peak" next time we go there. The Peak is not a shopping place by the way.
It (Chinese: 太平山, or previously- 扯旗山) is a mountain in Hong Kong. It is also known as Mount Austin, and locally as The Peak. The mountain is located in the western half of Hong Kong Island. With an altitude of 552 m (1,811 ft), it is the highest mountain on the island proper, but not in the entirety of Hong Kong, an honour which belongs to Tai Mo Shan.

The actual summit of Victoria Peak is occupied by a radio telecommunications facility and is closed to the public. However, the surrounding area of public parks and high-value residential land is the area that is normally meant by the name The Peak. It is a major tourist attraction which offers views over Central, Victoria Harbour, and the surrounding islands.

And because we decided on more shopping, I had to go and exchange for more HKD currency. Omg. We did a market survey and found out that one currency exchange shop in Causeway Bay had the best exchange rate. We went to Causeway Bay in the morning before going to Mongkok. It was a wrong decision since we saw the "We Sell" column instead of the "We Buy". Lols! I calculated and we lost about SGD10 for the exchange. Omg right!

New Town Mall is the place where u get the cheapest clothings in Hong Kong. I mean, other than the Street Markets. They aren't as cheap as Bangkok's or Taipei's but still worth it. :D
I bought about 15 pieces of clothings from there. Lols!

And finally, when we are all broke, we are all happy to make our way to the airport!

From September 23, 2011

And the Hong Kong Airport, I tell you, is the one of the best airports I have been to. It has a great great viewing gallery. I went around taking photos of aeroplanes when there was a 10 minutes delay in boarding the plane.

We were running late to board the plane since we had some trouble finding the Airport Express train in the MTR station. Got us both panicky and all that. But when we reached the airport, we still spent some time looking around in shops. Once a shopaholic, always a shopaholic! :D

And guess what we found?
Disneyland is not over yet in the Hong Kong Airport.
Here is a souvenir shop which u still can get Disneyland stuff if u forgot to get them in Disneyland!

From September 23, 2011

And we hurried to the viewing gallery where we could board our plane.

From September 23, 2011

Could zoom in so clearly on the planes.

From September 23, 2011

And in every Day 6 photo, Jun Wen was sulking. Lols. He couldn't bear to leave any country during our last day there.

From September 23, 2011

When it was time to board the plane. Look at me all tanned and sunburned!

From September 23, 2011

And sulking again in the plane. (Carine, so funny isn't it?)

From September 23, 2011

Saw this toy in the catalog, so cute!

From September 23, 2011

This time we watched "Paul", the Alien Comedy and then an episode of "The Big Bang Theory".
We didn't fall asleep this time round and finished all our food.
Asked also for a big cup of Baileys each. And when we wanted another cup, the air stewardess told us that we were going to land and the bar was closed. It was funny how even though u get free flow of alcoholic drinks on the plane, u eventually only get one. Cos after u finished dinner in the plane, u asked for a cup of Baileys and the plane was landing when u finished that cup. Next time I am going to drink a whole lot faster to make the money worth. Lols!

From September 23, 2011

Still sad. Nothing I could do to cheer him up. He was singing the "Goodbye" song. Lols!

From September 23, 2011

Our dinner!

Finally finished my entries on Hong Kong! Am I great or what! LOL!!!
Going for dinner with my poly friends now now! Sorry for any typo since I was typing really fast.
And ya.. Happy Birthday Shi Xing!!

Jun Wen's Birthday 2011

2011-09-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

14th Sept was they day we celebrated Jun Wen's birthday.
His actual birthday was on the 13th but he had an interview at DSTA at 3pm and I had to give tuition at 4 30pm. And after that we went for some coffee and cakes at Starbucks before meeting his family to have dinner at Chomp Chomp.
He was so ecstatic on the 12th awaiting his birthday that he couldn't concentrate on preparing for his interview. Lols!

Nice photo right! Lols. Thanks to me. Hahahahaha! Since Simba proclaimed to be King that very day, I volunteered to go to the counter and buy a cake and a coffee drink for him.
So here were New York Cheesecake and Vanilla Latte! I really don't mind drinking Starbucks coffee everyday if it doesn't harm my health and make me fatter.

Lol! Look like Chicken Little!
The staff in the background later went to our table and wanted us to take part in the Starbucks Challenge which is to have us taste 2 small cups of coffee and guess which one is the new coffee. Both of us got it correct. But I upsetted the staff by saying that the old original one was nicer. Jun Wen, as a gesture of politeness, said the new one was nicer. Lols! The old one have a stronger taste to it. Oops, I should be more conscious and alert of what others are thinking. Lols.

Still she recommended us to get a pack of the new coffee, Vienn, from Starbucks, which we didn't later on.

In the Starbucks at Nex, u may have to sit near the walkway where people just pass by u and may just poke u in your arm and say hello. It was what happened to me! I got a scare! :D

And on the 14th, I went to Marymount to pick the "king" up and we had lunch at Ajisen in Clementi before going to Farmart. :D

His way of saying hi to Ajisen.

I had to say hi too according to the Birthday Boy.

We ordered extra side dishes, which was rare cos I seldom and when we did, I couldn't finish and Simba had to gobble the rest of them up, which was a bad thing. The prawn sushi and the chicken wings were nice, you are welcome.

There was a lunch special menu. I had my Spicy Noodles for only $5.90!

And we waited at the bus stop opposite of Lot 1 to wait for the shuttle bus to Farmart.

Saw the advertisement from far and confirm that this was our bus stop.

Whil waiting for the bus, he asked me to massage his achy neck. Lols! I have never seen someone who is always complaining of neck pain!
He found another function for the itouch. It not only serves as a mini PSP for him, it now serves part time as a massager!

Last photo before the shuttle bus came. It was just a short ride there and at the end of it, Simba was saying thanks and bye to the shuttle bus driver when he said in a monotone manner, "50 cents please." Lols! We thought it was free since the website said it was!

And we reached. The boys who were in the same shuttle bus as us, came for the great food there. Lols! It turned out that not many visitors were there. And if they were, they were just there for the food!
We looked around and came to a realization that Farmart is a pretty small place. It wasn't as illustrated to be its website! Hahahaha!

Saw many retro stuff though. Like all these rides we used to take when we were kids. I would beg Mum for a 2nd ride and she will not allow! Lols! Younger bro and I could each have a ride only.

And I remembered vivdly there used to be this uncle owning a few kids' cars in Serangoon Central and everytime we went there, my brothers and I will each have a ride on them. Each ride costs $2. I will drive around, with my car wheels occasionally roll over some people's feets, which Mum and Dad didn't know and I kept quiet about it. Lols. But at the end of the day, Dad and Mum would say, "Wow, what a great driver you are!"
It's cool to have such encouraging parents! Lols! Although now I realize that they may have lied just to make me happier as a kid!

A tent for prawning. Prawning is an expensive hobby since it costs $12 an hour to prawn in the pool which is so dark that u can't see any prawn in it. And there's no guarantee that u may go home full from the prawns u have caught. Chances are, u may never catch any. I have never prawn before! So guys, let's go when I get my pay. Lols. There's also no guarantee that Simba may set the prawns free after catching them. I remembered he told me about his fishing experience, which he let go of all the fishes he caught in the end, and the fact that he left behind holes in the mouths of the fishes caused by his hook. Lols. Well... What can I say? I was talking to a person who flipped over the body of an insect so that it could fly again. (It was at first struggling to flip its body by itself.)

Jun Wen by the prawn pool. See what I mean? The water was so dark! Can't see any prawns in it. Drop your iphone inside and u can never recover it.

Although there weren't many live animals for us to see, at least there were some fake ones.
We came on the wrong day. The farm which we wanted to visit was open to the public only on weekends.

The shuttle who took us here.

The carpark.

There were a few fish tanks in the aquarium shop at most.

And a few locked up cats.
He had a great time playing with them. I recorded a video of him using his phone accessories to play with the cats. Show u next time if u are interested. Lols.
The cats were at first the least bothered with anybody until Simba came along. I must say he is good. They were intially just lying around enjoying the lazy Wednesday afternoon....

And Simba made them want to get to him. They became so active that I was so afraid. So afraid that they might just tore up the cage and run to him. Lols! They were crawling up the cage!

These cats are for adoption anyway. U can go to Farmart if u wanna adopt any. :D

Few chickens in cages too.

Lots of eggs ready to be sold!

It was sad that most of the shops were closed and some of them don't interest us. The farm was closed too.
But lcukily, there were plenty of farms and vegetations nearby. I told Simba that I would take him to the nearby Goats' Farm. Hay Dairies is the only goat farm in Singapore.

Also another old school thing. I really love this ride. Lols!
And that's pretty much it for Farmart. Quite a disappointment actually. But the good thing is, he finds joy in everything, he likes the cats alot.

Anyway, he likes all cats. He named all the cats in his neighbourhood, and plays with them.

We took a shuttle bus back to the Lot 1 bus stop and took bus 975. And thank God for Google map, we found Hay Dairies! They always say it's better to drive to places like the farms since it's at Lim Chu Kang and is quite inconvenient. I said otherwise since we are Captains of the Ship! Lol!

The entrance of the barn.

It was a pity that now we cannot get very near to the goats anymore, let alone buy grasses to feed them. The AVA (Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore) has disallowed any contact with the goats to prevent us from getting disease or something. It was no wonder we were the only visitors there. The boss used to look happy but that day when we passedby him, he looked so listless. :(

The goats were excited to see visitors! Lols! They were making sounds when they saw us. Saw the goats on the right? It was just sitting there on the same spot the whole while staring at us. But when we looked at it directly, it didn't seem to look at us since its eyes are quite far apart from each other while our eyes aren't that far apart. If u get what I mean. I thought it looked kind of funny and Simba laughed, saying that all goats are born with dead fish eyes (死鱼眼). This goat became Simba's favourite goat of the day.

This was the nearest that we could get to the goats.

Right between the 2 barns of the mother goats and the baby goats was a passageway for us to walk along and say hello to the goats.

Managed to get an zoom in image on some of them.

While they were making sounds like "Mehhhh", Simba made a response back to them. He was "mehhhh-ing" away. Lols!

Cute brownish black goat.

The staff maintaining the goats. They were very good audience. They just stood there watching their friend be maintained. Cute!

He wanted a photo with his favourite goat.

I had to take one with his favourite goat too. Lol.
Look at my newly shaped eyebrows. Lols!

And he wanted another photo of him touching the goat's nose. This was the best I could do. Lols.

Lols! Still in a daze!

After seeing the different varieties of goats, it was time to go to our next destination, the Qianhu Fish Farm. After I told Carine that during our last day in Taiwan last year, Simba frowned in every of our photos and has to flash this "bye" sign to everything, like the hotel door, the scenery, the airport etc, he began to do this frown and bye sign when we were ending my visit to some places. Lols.

I said bye too with a smile and Simba was accusing me for not being sad to leave the goats. -_-"
Okie, I admitted that I wasn't sad k!

Notice of the AVA on the locked gate for accessing the barn.

The sign we saw while walking to the bus stop to go to our next destination. We were waiting for the bus and got badly bitten by the mosquitoes. While Simba was able to resist the temptations of scratching himself, I was there busy scratching my legs and arms and he was busy stopping me. :D

We alighted from bus 975 as soon as we saw the sign that says "Qian Hu Fish Farm".

Which is this! We walked a long long way along the side road before finally reaching the farm. Tall trees sheltered us from the sun luckily.

Entrance of Qian Hu.

Qian Hu is an integrated "one-stop" ornamental fish service provider ranging from breeding of Dragon Fish, farming, importing, exporting and distributing of ornamental fish as well as manufacturing of aquarium and pet accessories and distributing them to local and overseas customers.

We bought drinks from this cafe and rested for awhile after the long walk. It was already 4 30pm and the last shuttle bus from Qian Hu would be leaving at around 6pm. So we promised to explore the place in a faster pace.

There were more visitors at Qian Hu, mostly guys taking the motorbikes there or families choosing the type of fishes they wanna buy.

We started our visit by looking at the Kois in the tanks outside the Viewing Gallery.

Kois with more attractive colours cost more. So sad, kind of judging the koi by its appearance. Lols.
So next time if u wanna know how rich a person is, go to his or her house and see the degree of the attractiveness of his or her kois.

I was taking note about what Simba was doing. He kept poking his head down near the waters of every tank.

Like this! And I discovered that he was blowing into the water to invoke reactions from the kois. Lols.
There was a lady using her hands to touch the kois despite the sign that warns us against touching them.

We also saw the biggest catfish! They don't move at all~

These are the stingrays. Jun Wen said they looked like pancakes, which I agreed.

Kois with long fins.

Ready for the viewing gallery.

His favourite type of fish is the Discus cos they looked funny to him.
Ehss....

The "pancakes" swim with wavelike movements. Cool.
They have to move with every part of their bodies swaying with the water.

He turned to me and said, "Hey, look at me!"
Then he swung his arms upwards with the fishes following the shadows. Reminded me of a conductor.

Golden turtle. So rare that it is so expensive. Costs thousands of dollars!

The colourful Discus.
The blue ones look so cool. Not bad to have a tank of colourful Discus in your living room.

It was puzzling on why he laughed to himself while looking at the dragon fish.

And yea, it looks rather funny.
It was swallowing its saliva all the time.

Nice! Him with surrounding tanks.

The zebra stingray. :D

The catfish that stays together lying on the brim of the tank. They look like burgers, don't they?

Then we went to Wheelock Place for dinner. Was inspired once again by hungrygowhere.com to go Cedele for dinner.

And we were entitled for a 20% discount off any main course on weekdays!

Was busy trying to savage my camera. Lols. My camera is spoiling. :( I have only used it for a year or so. I think I have overworked it! Oops.

The curry chicken flavoured pasta. He always chooses the main course with a "Chef Recommended" sign by the side. I think that's why his pastas always taste nicer than mine. Haha.

My crab pasta.
It was great. Thanks for asking.

Happy birthday Jun Wen! May he always look young, and find peace and joy in everything he does! :D
I wrote a birthday message for him on his Facebook Wall on his birthday:

"Happy 25th Birthday Jun Wen! May the years continue to be good to u and may this day bring u all things that make u smile. Wishing you all the best in life and great time forever! Each candle of your birthday cake took a gap of one year to fix on it. May your future become bright and brighter with increasing light of candles. Happy birthday! Enjoy! :D"

He was deeply impressed by the great depths of the message. I told him that he got tricked cos I got inspired by some Google search. Lols! How can I, without any help, think of something so deep like this?!