One drink too many

How many times do you recall yourself having a bad or funny experience with alcohol?

The first time where I got myself really drunk was probably two years back, with the PSC (i'm so going to call the primary school clique this from now on) at one of the playground at Gardens, after a really bad quarrel with Doug. We had too much whisky + coke / juice as forfeit for the Black/White Sheep game, and when our bladders couldn't take it anymore, we realized there's no toilet in sight. We ended up settling our business in one of the nearby bushes, stifling laughs in between.

When Jon decided to send us home, I forgot whose idea was it to wind down the car windows and shout at every random passing Ah Neh (again). I learnt from the rest of the PSC that I'd been really enthusiastic in shouting that night (usually I'm the quiet one) alongside Siaos, Jon and Rob, though I can't really remember what I'd been shouting. I remember sleeping at the backseat when everyone else went to the toilet at Macs (after we left the playground), apart from Jon, and he let out a really (understatement lol) smelly fart because he thought there was no one else in the car wtf. Everyone ended up having a good laugh bout it when they heard it.

Anyway, I've only just realized that I party and drink too little! There's never been once where I totally lost my mind, passed out, or had to be carried out of a club (or anywhere else for that matter). Yes, it's easy to get high and all (its easy at a place where beers go for 1USD per can and comes with a free shot), but nope, no passing out so far. I've been a really mild drinker but I am actually looking forward to getting myself dead drunk one of these days. Will tell you guys when that happens.

ps. The last episode of The Little Nyonya's disappointing, to say the least. After everything that they've been through, why can't the two of them be together already?

Taking flight again!

Tiger's return airfares to Bangkok in March during Recess Week are only going for $180++ (inclusive of airport tax and all), really tempting!

Silkair's fares to Cebu in May at $730+.

Philippines here I come!

Christmas Eve & Baking Fun

Last night's mash was great! Food, drinks and great company, what's there not to love? Headed down to Wine Company and surprisingly, the place wasn't crowded (must've been the rain). Caught up with Nee (someone's spotting long hair now lol), Mark (been back for 9 months now), Benjamin, & Nigel's still working there too. Harry's after, and we made our way down to Holland Village's 2a.m. Dessert Bar seeing that Ben & Jerry's were closed. Settled at Swensen's in the end and we ended the night with a chicken baked rice. Gosh.

I think it's not going to be easy for me to lose weight at the rate I'm eating, but hey, I don't mind doing it again!

JX and I messed up the kitchen today; we made cupcakes and sand cookies (whatever they are). Plain cupcakes turned out really nice this time round, save for the fact that I filled the cups with too much batter (think overflow!). Guess I do know what the problem was the last time round now, I'd used plain flour instead of self-raising flour. The cupcakes tasted really nice on their own; only slightly sweet with a hint of savouriness. Recipe's definitely a keeper; I got it from videojug by the way.

As for the sand cookies, one out of the three batches baked turned out kinda burnt. We found it really hard to make cut-outs from the cookie dough even after we've refigerated it; it turned soft real fast. Guess we'll just have to learn to work quicker the next time round.

Hope you guys had a great Christmas too!

5 days past by just like that. I'm back home now.

I love Penang!

So much's changed here in the past 3 years; my little cousins are all grown up, and new giant malls are springing up all over the place, but everyone's still as friendly as ever. So 383 miles away from Singapore last night, I stepped into my grandma's place after the longest break ever, and the first thing that came to their mouths were: "an zua luh an ni orh?!", and my grandma was like "za bor kia an ni orh bo swee la!" I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

It's only my first day here and I have a super bad feeling that I'll be going back heavier by at least a few kilos. 

Dinner last night consisted of: Penang char kway teow, kway chup (duck version lo!), yong tau hu, geng geng (do you know what's this?) soup, braised chicken feet, tau huay (with black sugar syrup), and some other really yummy dishes I can't remember what!

Breakfast for today was made up of apom (some damn shiok pancake), hokkien mee (prawn soup noodles yum), wanton mee, lum mee, curry mee (shiok shiok shiok! finally had a taste of curded pig's blood again), and lor mee with chicken feet. Treated my grandma, mama and Aunt Peggy to xiao long baos and Shanghainese fare at some Chinese restaurant a few hours ago, and the food was not bad too.

ALL the food here taste so damned good and it doesn't help that they come in servings half the size of Singapore's. And guess what, I'm heading to Gurney Drive later in the night with more relatives and I'm looking forward to all the yummy stuff; asam laksa, lok lok, more apom, ice kachang and chendol, deep fried chicken skin (!!) and so on. *salivates*

Staying at Aunt Peggy's (greatest hosts ever) new place currently and it's a really nice place, and really near Queensbay Shopping Mall. We just got back from the mall with a few bags of clothes/lingerie/shoes, etc. They have the furriest pomeranian around and it's name is Bingo. Poor Bingo's got his right hind leg injured (for whatever reason) and he's hopping around on three legs; let's hope it'll be okay soon.

Penang, I missed you so!

ps. My grandma just said I've put on weight gahhhhhhh!!!

Time for bed

I'm so screwed once more.

Happy Genting-ing shir & jon!

First shots

Here's one of the first few shots I've taken with my Holga baby. Will be sharing more in time to come, I love them all, and I hope you guys do too. Leave comments about the pictures if you wish, but be friendly even though you need to criticize? Thank you people!

having fun with the multi-coloured flash. with xue and hammy at one of Orchard Rd's BK when she just got back from aussieland.

Picture was printed and scanned onto the computer, hence the quality's not as good. 

Saigon Moments (i)

A little overdue but I hope it'll still be an interesting read. Did Vietnam with a few fellow windsurfers two weeks after the exams've ended. On this trip, I managed to get my contact lens solution confiscated at the customs checkpoint (forgot all bout the no-liquids rule, $%^&*#$%^@&#), learnt to appreciate coffee a lot more, had a couple of really cheap beers in Mui Ne, learnt that I'm not the only one who can really eat, and the list just goes on.

So, let's just start with the first day!

After one big bite of Ben's McGriddles and two hours of flight, we arrived at Ho Chi Minh International Airport. Met up with our guide, Ko, who gave a brief introduction and we were off to lunch!

It was early when we arrived, and the roads were not as congested as they'd usually be. Ko explained that was because it was a Sunday morning, and many people didn't have to go to work. We were pretty intrigued with the new sights and sounds; if you ask me, I'd say it's a little different from the other Asian places I've been to.

really tall trees along the roads

Saigon's got a human population of 8 million, and a motorbike population of 4 million. 

nope, no refrigeration. and no flies, now I'm really curious.

Motorbikes started filling up the streets in throngs with each passing minute and we learnt that honking of the carhorn's really a common affair. It took me around half an hour to get used to our van overtaking on the left (left-hand drive), and you can never ever keep track of how many times the driver's honked the horn. I lost count, and couldn't be bothered after.

lunch check-point.

river-side restaurant; where the waitresses are all clad in white, translucent ao dais, revealing whatever sort of bras they're wearing underneath.

first course; no idea what fish that is, tilapia? anyway, it was so deep fried that the scales could be eaten.

a waitress came to our table and rolled up some fish, thick bee hoon and pineapple slices with the rice paper.

first of many springroll dishes that we were going to encounter. I like spring rolls.

big headed prawns; waitresses did the shelling for us. not that I minded.

celery and carrot soup, with thin pork slices. homely feel. 

great ball of rice. ball, not bowl! haha

great ball of rice cut up and flattened.

After lapping up the last bit of soup in the charcoal steamboat, we hopped back onto the van and the driver took us to the part of Mekong Delta where we were going for a boat ride.

local and offshore fishing vessels, local ones have 'eyes' painted at their bows to scare away any monsters that might be lurking beneath the surface of the waters.

what lurks beneath...?

Did a few stop-overs along the long stretch of Mekong Delta, had some honey & lime tea at a small bee farm (?), petted a giant python where we had fresh fruits for our afternoon snack, visited the place where coconut candy is produced, hitched a pony ride, sat in a rocky sampan and so on.

tea-time

tea-time snacks, preserved coconut strips, lotus seeds and ginger pieces. coconut ftw.

mini tea cups.

the tourists...

the old lady who powered our sampan. strong woman. 

and our pony was way ahead of everyone else. what's the rush, pony?

passed by this lady while we were on the carriage; how's that for retro? love the bright red!

one coconut drink awaits each of us when we got back to the boat. neither cold nor sweet, but still a good end to our Mekong Delta visit.

doesn't this remind you of bowling pins? 

expressway's limit is 70km/h (wtf?) and there were many humps along the expressway, good idea to stop people from speeding eh. 

The Mekong tour took us one whole afternoon, and we headed straight for dinner after. Chinese fare lor; braised pork belly, stir-fried lala, omelette with springies and fried squid. Our group can really eat, compared to the other group from NBS that was there too. Nothing left on our plates and none of the other tables (all from NBS) could finish up everything on their tables. Weak! hahaha.

We only got to our hotel after dinner. The hotel where we stayed at is called Lien An; there's a few more 3-star hotels along the same stretch of street, 'aquariums' disguised as salons just beside (and the girls have a standardized uniform can), and a shop selling Singapore food (super not cheap) just across the street.

i had lijun & mel as roomies. big rooms ROCK.

We idled for a short while in our rooms (the usual channel-flipping, bouncing on bed stuff luh) before heading out to Ben Tanh Night Market. Lots of beaded pouches, cheap clothes and imitation goods, especially Polo and Adidas tees. Brands like LV, Gucci, Channel abit cannot-make-it. Sidenote: guess once you've been to Bangkok, shopping elsewhere is never comparable. Back to the market, it's a rather popular tourist spot, so, you must always remember to bargain. Street snacks are sold here too; coloured-glutinous rice with durian/sugar/bean-paste toppings, kinder surprise (will blog bout this the next time round), zhi char stuff, and so on. I had a jolly time stuffing myself silly with whatever snack we bought while waiting for the rest to finish their shopping.

entrance/exit of ben tanh.

First day of Saigon? The tourist spots (nothing really impressive yet) did not really appeal to me, but the food and the laidback vibes from the people did. The people there take things slowly as they come and never seem to be in a hurry (apart from on the roads, I still remember the aftermath of the accident on the expressway) I became known as the-girl-who-eats-a-lot. Later in the night, I sucked on a watermelon-flavoured ice-pack that I got from the supermart before finally heading to bed, satisfied. 

Visit again for the next few parts soon.

ps. I think my hard-disk's down. knccncbcb. All my pictures are in there, I hope I'd be able to get it fixed soon. Please let it be fixed. I hate worrying bout this kinda stuff. argh.

The aspiring baker

After so much procrastination, I finally got myself an electric mixer and the necessary ingredients from Phoon Huat beside Burlington Square. I must admit I did a terrible job on my first attempt at Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. Cupcakes turned out a little too hard, but I thought the buttercream wasn't as difficult to make as I thought it'd be. The cupcake mixture seemed to be a little too dry but I can't seem to make out where I went wrong; I'm quite certain I stuck to the measurements. Ohwell! Let's keep fingers crossed and hope the next batch will turn out to be more well-made.

The wait is long and agonizing.

I can't get to sleep. Just finished watching the 22nd episode of Little Nonya on mobtv, you can say I'm addicted. Shall not comment on the acting and despite the predictable plot, I find myself going back for more. Yeh, sucker. Agh, I wish they'd upload the episodes faster!

Met up with the tri-team for a steamboat dinner tonight and Ah Chew Desserts after. Nothing remarkable bout the steamboat place but dessert was Great! & I happened to meet a really unpleasant person at Ah Chew's. The initials' SC; guess it's not that difficult to figure out who. Anyway, it was a really nice evening spent catching up with some of the tri senior members and coach PY!

Sent 3 rolls of film for developing today, after such a long wait. Was a little scared that the uncle might not be able to process my roll of black & white since I didn't roll the spool properly and the film appers to have been exposed to light, but he said "no worries!" Now I'm really keeping fingers crossed. Hope to receive everything in the CD tomorrow afternoon.

& today made me really glad bout the little interest that I might have in fashion. Thank goodness for all that money not spent. Now I'm that teeny weeny bit closer to getting my 2nd-hand DSLR and my dream holidays. must.prevail.must.not.give.in.to.temptations.

Siaos if you're reading this, let's go get our ipods on Christmas Eve when I'm back from Penang? I'm quite sure they'll be having some special last-minute promotions on that day.

Let's do a re-cap

Don't we all love recaps? Now's probably a little too early for one, but who cares! I probably won't have much time for one anytime later than now, with the Penang trip coming up and all.

In the year of 2008, I...

# completed my 3-year long journey at Temasek Polytechnic,

# taught inline-skating for a couple of months,

# was accepted by NIE,

# picked up windsurfing and joined the club,

# donated blood for the first time ever,

# visited Phuket upon graduation,

# did Saigon & Mui Ne beach with the windsurfers,

# went for my first leisure dive,

# did a trek up Stong,

# tried Salsa Dancing,

# stopped working at the Wine Company,

# broke up with my ex of nearly two years,

# attended his passing out parade still,

# baked a batch of cupcakes together with shir and jon for siaos' birthday,

# tried to pick up inline hockey too,

# got my holga,

# visited eateries (that I've never heard of) with damned good food,

There's been both laughter and tears and I'm glad I came across all the people that I've met. Only yesterday, it felt like I was going to get abs from all that laughing at Bliss. I'm blessed, and I know it. 

The end is near

The months crept by quietly and once again, we've come to the last month of the year. A rather happening year, I wouldn't be wrong to say. Time to reflect on things that have happened so far eh?

Anyway, I've just uploaded the Vietnam pictures on Facebook, go take a look when you guys are free!

I tried to sleep earlier but nope, my mind just refuses to. Damned those eyebags!

Family dinners & change

It was the first time my aunt ever talked to me like that; telling me how great being single is, how I should really see the world while I can (before I get tied down with marriage and kids); because holidays after you have your own family can get kind of different.

The past 2 nights were spent away from home. First night of surf camp was spent at the Sea Sports Club, and we were out on the roads for night cycling on the second. Set off from ECP to Old Airport Road Hawker Centre, followed by Novena Square, Thomson Road (The Prata House), Bishan, Potong Pasir, Bugis, Esplanade (where we rested for quite a while) and finally back to the park.

Excuse me now while I head back for more bed time. loves.

Life as it is now

Great, and I won't be making any changes to it anytime soon (read: next 4 years). And I'm going to stop blogging with so much ambiguity in my entries. It's not going to be easy but I'll try okay. Do a proper update on my Saigon visit soon, after surf camp! 

Lined up for the month of December

1. Surf Camp from 9th to 11th - lots of surfing, a night of barbecue, night cycling (it's going to be my first night cycling experience), and karaoke!

2. Penang from 19th till 23rd - haven't been back in a long time, I'm going to whack all that Penang laksa, Char Kway Teow and Hokkien Mee I can get my hands on when I'm back.

Lots of things cluttered up in my mind, but I won't say them here. You know where to find me if you know.

Things I feel like doing right now

1. Paint a kick-ass mural on my wall

2. Ice-cream!

Charmed

It's our fifth and final day here in Vietnam and despite a few hair-raising experiences on the roads, I can already feel myself missing this place; the never-stopping flow of motorbikes and honking on the busy roads, awesome coffees, (fluffy) baguette sandwiches, yummy pho in clear broth, friendly people, people lazing in their hammocks along the roadsides in the afternoon sun, and (read damned) cheap beers. I have to admit that Vietnam was not on the top of my t0-go list; I just thought it'd be a good opportunity to get to know the windsurfing peeps better and at the same time, see what Vietnam's got to offer.

I'm really digging this place and I've decided to put it on my to-go-back-to list now. I mean, what's there not to like about this place? Okay, maybe 'cept for the mosquitoes buzzing around where I'm typing this entry now. The pace of life here is slow and the people are laid-back; I enjoy watching people taking their afternoon naps in their hammocks. And speaking of which, I think hammocks are just part of their culture. It must be a sin for families not to own at least one hammock or something, not that I'm complaining.

I think I've sat here long enough. Abit paiseh-ed since they're not charging for the internet usage, guess I'll just go up and wait for the rest of the group to be back. Catch you guys again in a few hours!

sad about nothing

sometimes, i wonder what i mean to you. you, not you. you never seem to have time for me. oh well. happy holidays.

From the land where motorcyles reign

Hey people, I've seriously got no idea whether or not I'm being charged for this internet service at the hotel lobby (have yet to see any signs so far) so I guess I'll just do a really quick update and shoo.

Arrived at HCM's airport at 8.30 a.m. local time (1hr behind Singapore time) and met our guide, Ko (pronounced ker). Everything's been good so far, though we withnessed the result of a road accident (pretty bloody, god bless the poor soul).

The group of us've just came back from one of the more prominent night markets here in HCM, and we'll be setting off for Mui Ne Beach in Phan Tiet (or sth like that) tomorrow morning. Keep you guys updated again if I can alright, miss you all! :)


ps. I'm sorry for the hasty departure. Please don't be upset bout it.