CNY. 2013.

The 15 days of CNY for the year of 2013 had gone by and I hope you had lots of fun receiving or giving angbaos, receiving from and giving blessings to others, winning or losing money and celebrating with prosperity toss!

Every year is not only a tradition for me to get together with my relatives, but also a custom to meet friends I met in sec sch and poly. :D 


A newborn entered our family last year and came to our first CNY reunion dinner at 10 months old.


   

Here is my nephew Kayden saying hello to you guys. Everyone in the family said he resembles me so much! Lol. I think I should go dig some old baby photos of me out of my dusty drawer to validate their opinion.




My young cousins (of age 9, 16 & 19) came prepared with a card game Saboteur to play with us, the older cousins in our twenties, after polishing their skills and practising with tons of others. But little did they know that we were not only the least competitive competitors, we were also the least enthusiastic ones. While they were spontaneously screaming whenever they succeeded in their scheming plot, we were yawning away. Lol. The kids were saying that we were no fun and playing with us didn't trigger much excitement in them. Age gap, age gap. Perfect example of age gap!

Younger Bro and I were really patient and went through rounds of the game with them tirelessly while the rude Older Cousin let out a occasional snickering laugh. Lol. She told Younger Bro and I to bring our poker cards the next day and to at all means never mention Saboteur again! :D




Older cousin wasn't ready for any photo since she was dressed in home clothes! The way she blocked her face was so wayang!





The game that almost claimed our lives. The Malaysians say it better; 玩到老掉. I would advocate the use of anti-aging cream before playing this game with the young ones!




The spirited boy couldn't stop crawling around the house and everyone in the family held him in their hands for as long as they could (He is severely overweight!) His friendliness to us made him a celebrity; everyone just adore him!





Older Cousin downloaded an app which tells of your fortune in the year of 2013 and painted her nails red as the auspicious color of her zodiac for this year is crimson! Her pale hands, red nails and long black hair made us wanna start filming a new edition of "The Ring" with the honour of her being the main lead!




:D




Dad and his sis, my aunt, are real 4D worshippers. Lol. They ended the CNY's eve by coaxing Kayden to pick out 4D numbers to ignite their hope in winning the top prize!


The following day was the first day of CNY, and we were again in my paternal grandma's house to submit to the Chinese culture.




We have here a combination of 3 families.
Younger bro and I.
Angela, Bernita and Clarissa (The eat potato sisters - yes, they speak Channel 5 only).
Older Cousin Li Jing (The only child).




The pile of new year goodies before me. Yes, I tend to eat more during CNY but couldn't hold a candle to my cousins; they ate like they have never eaten anything in their whole life! This explains why I'm the shortest grown-up in the entire family. *sobs*






   
Younger Bro at the dining table. His 2nd attempt to smile without showing too much wrinkles. Lol. 

No room for the entire family to sit and have the steamboat dinner, so taking turns has become the custom. 

Mum hates photo-taking. This is the best I could get out of her.







Dressed like princesses was the pair of lovely sisters whose smiles can make your day. Although they are half Vietnamese, they only speak ang moh. :D

        C-U-T-E!

Younger bro and I. Together with Mum and Elder Bro, we are known as the Malays of the big family.

 

        Hazel's iPad screensaver is one Disney princess Belle!




She is shy towards us but never camera shy. Look at that pose and expression of the model-to-be!








Hazel and her sis doing virtual hair dressing for their customer in the pad.






Our first time gambling as a family. The senior citizens (Dad and Aunt) became very interested and went all out to win our money.





TV watching was also a big part of CNY.






Cousin used to vow never to touch alcohol, but now she can't quit drinking them. Lol. Uncles began contributing their collections of wine to practise the act of sharing on CNY after most of us grew to the legal drinking age.




The celebrity is so cute! He eats literally everything; the moment you bring something edible near him, he will open his mouth as soon as he smells the piece of food. 




Mum lied to some of my aunts that the boy is mine. Tarnishing the daughter's reputation. Poor me.

Valentines 2013

We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness - and call it love - true love. ~Robert Fulghum, True Love


Dear girlfriends hope u spent your Valentines Day smelling numerous blooms from the flowers you received from your special someone!

This Valentine Day Simba and I went to Paddington House of Pancakes at City Square Mall to have that special dinner. Food bloggers had portrayed this restaurant in a good light, and Simba must have read the reviews to make it his top choice to dine at for this once-a-year occasion.

City Square is really a ghost town; few couples were seen even on Valentine's Day.

I was a little skeptical about the taste this restaurant could bring to us, as Simba brought me to Pandelicious Cafe at Thomson V Two Mall for dinner few weeks back and I was so disappointed in the chefs. :D

But this is GOOD.
The food was heavenly, the portion big and the price affordable.
The menu was partitioned into starters, savoury pancakes and sweet pancakes (desserts). Everything pancakey.

However, I do hope that the management would take on a more holistic approach in managing the restaurant. It was so understaffed. When we were in the queue, we saw many patrons sitting at the empty table; not even drinks was served. We waited for about half an hour for the mains to be served and another 15 minutes for our dessert. And another 20 minutes for our next plate of food. We were seated at 8pm but left the restaurant at 10.50pm. Lol. Simba said we could have used the money and time on a big feast / buffet!

During that time, I observed the behaviour of all other customers. Some grew angry and impatient but others were understanding and forgiving. I saw many hand raises to ask for utensils after their food finally came. The sole waiter just kept forgetting. As expected, our utensils weren't brought to us too until we asked. lol. I actually think the food can make up for what the service is lacking; that's how good it was.





Simba dressed up for the occasion too.
He was famished but still took his time in leafing though the menu to decide which pancake he wanted.

Instructed him to take a portrait photo of me and he brought the camera to a low angle, and the auto focus function blurred me out.




Lol. Love all these expressions on my subject. They make my collection of photos more interesting than ever.




Took more photos while waiting. :D 

Was secretly eavesdropping on the couple sitting beside us too. The girl was gentle, pretty and really nice but the guy was so not worth it. He spent the whole Valentine's Day dinner bitching about his colleagues, complaining about the service and ultimately screaming at the waiter. He didn't even want to taste the awesome food when it got served, saying that he lost appetite after the bad service got to him. The girl had to coax him into having that dinner. Omg. Must be the worst Valentine's date ever for her.

Checked in.

Conquered the summit of his pancake burger.

Time to eat it all up.

My Prawn Aglio Pasta. Lol. Told you I'm skeptical about pancakes.

Peppermint chocolate drink.

Cucumber juice. Lol. Health-conscious to the max! (Yup, it was his.)

The Tiramisu was so worth the wait! Be sure to order this when you dine there.
The most unique part of the dessert was the coffee at the bottom. :D 

Wrap. We overestimated the capacity of our stomachs and ordered one more mains, only to regret after having the tiramisu. Lol.

Exhibits in City Square. New generation trains, so new I couldn't remember the programme name featuring these. Off the top of my head I could only remember Thomas and Friends (trains in my generation) and that Sheldon (from The Big Bang Theory) loves trains to the very core. Lol.

My peek-a-boo embossed white dress from Zara specially bought for the date. 

My gift for him is a mandarin-collared baseball jacket from Pull & Bear! 
I think what really admirable about Simba is that he really appreciates every gift I bought! He actually went to sleep that night with the jacket to show how much he likes it and wore it out the next day. (lol. Eewww but so cute!)












Opened the present with much anticipation.








The previous gift for him was a Mont Blanc perfume from Sephora and the kind Salesman gave me some perfume samples to try with one of them being the Bebe Green Apple perfume. It smelled really awesome (I'm very particular on my choice of perfumes since I'm allergic to almost all lol, and this doesn't trigger any unpleasant reaction on me!), but unfortunately I broke it after wearing its scent out for the second time. Now I own a much bigger portion of the perfume! 

:D

CNY's Eve

新年快乐！
Hope ya had a bit of emotional sustenance from the long weekend break. :D

Am really still busied with work, so I have here just a few photos of Jun Wen and I to greet you in this Lunar New Year!

We were at Wisma's Starbucks on CNY's Eve after both running errands for my aunt and going on a fishing expedition to find more teaching materials at Kinokuniya.


Cousin woke me up that morning and said Aunt needed 1 kg of Bakkwa, 2 pieces of Aloe Vera and few cans of Taiwan beer. Lol. I had minor 起床气 and dragged myself out of bed to get all those stuff.

And moments later when I stepped into Grandma's house for reunion dinner, Aunt went, "Do I need to return you money?" Lol! Why are all the older people acting all weird after I start working?
And once I said no, there goes my $80+! Aiya, my 好不容易收到的 angbao money is compromised by all the Bakkwa and beer!





Hoity-toity. Lol.



"Stop it! You stop snapping photos of me!"




Taught Simba how to take a picture at a better angle, but it was just too bad that I flashed an awkward smile!

PS. Love my long-sleeved puff mauve dress. Kept asking Simba if I looked like a working woman and he was compelled to say yes! Lol.

Goodbye vampire teeth! And hello to Mr Intern!

Knee brace removed. 

Now teeth braces.
1st braces consultation on 18th Feb. Praying for less sacrifices (more pain tolerance & less food stuck in my teeth lol) I have to make in order to possess that perfect smile!
Goodbye vamp teeth. Goodbye awkward smile. I will miss you. After all you've been stuck with me ever since I started puberty. 
And say yay to the future set of white and neat teeth!


Now a 90% possibility of hiring an intern to be supervised by me from March to August. The 19-year-old, a friend of CS, is currently studying in Ngee Ann Polytechnic Bioengineering (Bi Han's and Sharon's junior) and a diligent, mature boy. :) 

His irrevocable fate of going to listen to me and my naggings for half a year. Lol. 

I'm always keeping in mind my benefactors, people who can be so patient and pass me as much knowledge as I can. I hope I can be like them, someone who inspires and motivates. 

Dear future intern, I promise to treat you like my benefactors treated me. I promise to be a delight. I don't have a prodigious talent, but I promise to help you out with everything that is within my ability.

I know that having an intern will make me work harder since I have to do my homework before I can answer all his doubts without being doubtful about myself (lol). 
Say yay to adding "Managing an intern" to the skill set section of my resume! :D


A series of photos taken in year 2008 (I was 21 then!) to pay tribute to my vamp teeth.





 

Updates in 2013.

Update #1. One of my best friends is tying the knot this coming April, a day after my birthday, and I get to be the bridesmaid! I'm feeling the excitement even now. 

Update #2. I'm going to Korea in May, and hopefully meet Jung Yong-hwa, Kim Jong Kook and Kang Gary on the streets. Hoho!

Update #3. My first tuition class will start in less than a month's time! I felt my stomach do a somersault when my friend first broke the news that I was assigned a class of foreign adults (most older than me). And since then, this knowledge seemed to amplify my senses, multiplying the gnawing anxiety exponentially. My personal best of giving a group tuition was 4 sec school students at one time, and now I, the inexperienced young lass, have to face 10 unfamiliar matured faces in a classroom? Am I worth that much of their tuition fee? It's crazy just to think about it. :D

The elementary requirement of this once per week lesson was to teach conversational English (how to converse with others when they go shopping or do a casual chat) and convey my understanding of the storyline laid out by the contents of a book. 

Going from shelf to shelf to browse through books in the hope to pick out a few interesting but simple reads has proven to be such a challenge! I dunno if it's me being fussy or Popular bookstore just doesn't sell what I was looking for. Thus Kinokuniya was the next destination to start my exploration for such books. Living up to its reputation of having a wide array of books installed for catering to the needs of all readers, I found the immaculate book. 

Invisible by Hugues de Montalembert - An inspiring memoir of a painter who lost his sight after being attacked by 2 men in New York City, and how he went against all odds to live out his life in a fulfilling, fruitful manner. 

Most importantly, it is a short read (130 pages) with adequate descriptive sentences to portray the writer's emotions so well, I could tell the class why each word is used in that context. :D

My friend showed belief in me when I am not even sure of myself, and I really think she's so kind. She assured me that I will get better with each lesson, and she just need me to teach with sincerity and care. Can only hope I will develop my inner artist (teaching is definitely a form of art) in no time and be someone who can make a lasting, good impression to the class. 

It's time to snap out of my reverie and grow as an individual, to learn to lead and guide a group of people to the realm of English language. 



Am proud to bring to you my new pair of Sperry loafers last weekend.
Once I set foot into Tangs, I made a beeline for the shoes section and this absolutely caught my eye!





Leopard prints are so cute! Of course, I don't mean I fancy exaggerated leopard prints enbossed all over a dress/blouse, but I don't mind a bit of them to accessorise the entire look. This pair of shoes is a combination of all the things I fancy - gold coloured shoelaces, loafers, caramel brown coated on the sides and alice blue!


Happy Chinese New Year my dears!