It sucks to be strong

Words of consolation and encouragement are given to the weak when they meet with setbacks whereas the strong get nothing and are expected to just get over bullcrap quickly on their own. At times like that, I can't help but want to shout out really loud "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!" But of course, I don't (& maybe that's why I feel like doing it all the time).

Sigh.

ps. dear self, I know it sucks to be strong but pleasepleasepleaseplease learn to be so; you cannot always depend on people to pull you out of shitholes because they won't be there all the time.

pps. I digress, but I get super annoyed and make snide remarks whenever the 9pm Ch8 show comes on. IT IS NOT OKAY TO CHEAT/TWO-TIME AND F CHIN STOP BEING SO FAKE ENTHU!

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!

Filler.

What's in Miss Chang's lunchbox today?

I'm into my second last week of internship now, and so far, I am very thankful that things have been rather good despite the very draining markings and early hours.

Today, I had my first official (ungraded) lesson observation with the lower-ability class that I am attached to for the past 3 weeks. Not surprisingly, being the nervous wreck that I was, I sped through the first few slides of the chapter on Graphs unintentionally; thank goodness it wasn't graded. My CT mentioned to me briefly post-lesson that things got better as time went by, and I was sooooooooooo heartened by her comments, even though there are still a lot of improvements to be made. Next up, I'll be doing the life cycles of chicken and frogs with them next Thursday (I'm very excited to teach this topic!)... and as a tuning-in activity for them for the chapter, each class has been given 10 live caterpillars each to look after; so that they will be able to observe the different stages of growth of a butterfly. I can't wait to hear them squeal in disgust/delight tomorrow when the teacher assigns pupils to bring them home hurhurhur.

Anyway, I just want to end by adding that my CTs are two very cool ladies. One of them went for Jay Chou's concert over the weekend with her 17 year-old son!!!

Jelly-centre oranges

Because I was bored; and I've been thinking of making these for some time now...

err not very well-dug

hehe

I'll try some other combinations when I'm less tired!

The good people.

I met up with some of the most wonderful people in my life over the past week. This is going to be mostly pictures with short captions; no time to type long paragraphs these days! Paiseh for that, not that my readership of 10 will mind. :p

With KTOWY:

This is Bob; we were playing Big Taboo at Play Nation (beside Mind Cafe, Prinsep Street!)

Pictionary part in the game; they concluded that I was not very good at Art. FYI, this page doesn't show any one of my drawings hur hur.

A slice of Lychee Rose at 1Caramel, we had the Red Miso Souffle too and it was gooooood.

And with Bun & G at Cafe Iguana:

chips. I've sort of been coming here for at least once a week for the past 3 weeks :x

... and 've also been sort of ordering the same food over; deep fried yummy calamari.

nachos sans jalepeno; okay this is totally irrelevant but I've been chuckling to myself everytime I hear people say fajitas wrongly.

pork tacos; that tasted and looked suspiciously like lamb

partners-in-crime; for making me believe their story........

it got dark, and my cake and present appeared out of nowhere

heehee tyvm i lub you both soooooooo much!

uh... double trouble

i have a new obsession with cakes :x

from TCC. yums

trying to take a successful "diu diu" multi-exposure shot

so cool ah G :pppppp

hehehe

So, I've just turned 22. To be dead honest, the year ahead didn't come to a fantastic start. I was a little troubled over some matters last night, but I think things'll get better in time to come. But despite all that emo bullcrap, I still think I'm really lucky to have you guys with me. *big hug*

do you want me to stay or go?

I saw Mumsy's bedroom door open when I got back home after an entire day out (err, close to) with the secondary school peeps, so I invited myself in and plopped myself onto my parents' very, very, very comfortable bed. When the two of us are lying there, bodies and minds in super-relaxed states and eyes half-focusing on whatever's on telly, I will talk to her about some of the usual mindless things that are always going through on my mind; sometimes we'd be talking about how I'm coping at school, other times I'd tell her about my friends, what I think about boys and relationships, or how lucky I think my life is.

Tonight, I've been thinking about how boyfriends and girlfriends are always affecting each other's decisions in life; however minor or major they may be. I will probably not be travelling as much if I had a boyfriend who didn't like me to, so, I asked her if she would rather I be attached (now that I'm still studying) if that would keep me in Singapore for as much possible, or would she rather I be single but am always trying to get out of here. She said she didn't know. So I helped her choose the latter, since I've decided that I'm still young (therefore still eligible for $ loan), have a lot of vacation time to spare and will only turn on the panic 'switch' another 5 years down the road. 

She rolled her eyes at me, like how she always does, and that always makes me angry... for 5 seconds.

I love Mumsy <3

Lunch boxing

taken with my iPhone Hipstamatic app

I've been preparing my own lunch-boxes daily two days after practicum first started last week. Mumsy's been telling me almost everyday that I should just buy my lunch from the school canteen, but, I really enjoy cutting up ingredients, listening to the "tok, tok" sounds made when the knife hits the chopping board, busying myself with more cutting while waiting for food to be boiled/steamed/fried, and finally, arranging the food in a presentable manner. Heck, I even don't mind the washing for once in my life!

Of course, this probably has everything to do with my desire to lose weight, again. I was determined to avoid the 'bad carbs' when I started out; that means no rice, no pasta, no noodles or pasta in my lunch-box, and so far, I've been doing well. It's hard to go completely carbo-less though, especially when I'm having breakfast/dinner with my parents at hawker centres; I can't think of any other dishes without significant portions of carbohydrates apart from popiah and rojak (help, anyone?).

I thought I felt the post-effects of the changes in my diet kinda quickly. The first few days were actually quite bad; I felt so lethargic when work ended that I had to take super long afternoon naps after I got home from school. It got better afterwards, I'm less tired now than I originally was (shorter naps :p). But really, it could just be a placebo effect, right?

In any case, I hope to keep this lunch-box + dieting thing up, and with some daily crunches, finally have a flat tummy and less flabby arms soon!

Aww.

just sometimes.

Lunch and dessert

Met up with Doug yesterday for lunch at Eden Sanctuary Floral Cafe (China Square Central). Read some reviews about the place and decided to check the place out because I thought some of the dishes and teas were rather interesting.

I just did a quick search online again and found pictures of some blue teas from here. Will probably want to check those out if I'm coming back anytime soon!

Hawthorn & Wolfberry Tea

cute little hollow tea cups

Balsamic Strawberry Beef.

Saffron Cream Salmon and Portebello

Doug gave me my first birthday presents of the year, many days in advance actually, since he'll be leaving for Taiwan in the night. Tyvm!

After lunch, I went to meet Aud, Xuanie and Rongster for desserts. We ended up at Bakerzinn, Paragon. The girls were really sweet and got Aud & me little candles on our tiny slices of cake.

so cute! like magazine cover

Miss Gan and Miss Chua

Miss Gan and Miss Chang

my slice of strawberry shortcake

Miss Chin and Miss Chua again!

:)) It was great catching up with you girls, hope you will all have a good time for TA! <3 always!

Sinful Sunday

This entry's all about food.

Early morning, I met up with Shir at Riders Cafe. I've passed by the saddle club plenty of times before, to and fro the tutee's place, but I've never turned left in once. Until Sunday; we had a reservation at 9.

Followed by Island Creamery after our breakfast:









After windsurf training, I had another ice cream from the aunty who operates her weekend business out of her minivan.

And for dinner, we had Arnold's Fried Chicken.





Followed by Udders (new Upper East Coast Road branch) with Uncle David and Shiqi; where I entertained them with my unfunny milkshake jokes.



No wonder people don't believe me when I tell them I'm trying to diet.

Windermere, Lake District

England's (or maybe the whole of UK as well) bank holidays start on the day we were supposed to head to Windermere from Manchester. Many people used this opportunity to get out of the city for the long weekend ahead; and this meant that the trains were very crowded, in fact, it was so crowded that we didn't even manage to get a seat on our way to the transit station, Preston.

It started raining along the way and it didn't stop even after we've arrived. Due to our unsuccessful attempts to book us a room for the night in Bath, we did a last-minute booking at the tourist information centre (we paid an additional 15 pounds for this booooooo *dislike*).

where we slept for the next 2 nights

A 10-minute walk later, we arrived at Clifton House, a quaint little B&B (Bed and Breakfast) place. The male owner showed us to our room. It was on the highest floor and I remember feeling just a little @#$%^& because we (okay actually just me) over-shopped and our backpacks weighed 20 stones and we had to climb up so many flights of steps now.

Then I saw our room. And I felt that the steps were well worth the effort. 

LOVE! Can stargaze at night!

I was secretly wishing that I can come home to a cosy room like that everyday!

We took a super long break in our room, and slept a fair bit each before finally heading out for dinner. It was drizzling slightly as we walked along the streets. We found a little shop selling takeaway fish and chips; F and I  each got a set of cod and chips, then found a dry and and sheltered spot on some steps in front of a furniture shop across the street and made ourselves comfortable.

our first dinner in Windermere.

before tucking into our roadside dinner

After our dinner (oh, and it got cold enough to see our breath when we exhaled), we decided to take a walk nearby. Looked at the map that we got from the tourist information counter and followed a route that would lead us down to the lakeside. 

I'll remember to crop my flower pictures next time

After walking for the longest time along the most deserted road (that we've been on in UK so far), we finally arrived at the lakeside. There were some tents pitched on the shore, and I could smell some of the food that were being barbecued by the campers. I suppose it'll be really nice to spend a night sleeping in a tent by the quiet lakeside. 

pictures were taken at around 8 plus in the evening...

We trudged slowly back to Clifton House, up the steps and into our cosy little room where I spent the night looking out of the window trying to spot stars from my pillow before falling into a deep sleep.

The next day, we woke up to a sumptuous English breakfast before setting off to Orrest Head, the highest viewpoint for Lake Windermere. Among all the little treks that we took on this trip, Orrest Head was probably the easiest of all. We met many friendly English people (and their pet dogs) along the way, and exchanged hearty morning greetings. It was a great way to start our day.

View of a section of Lake Windermere

Stayed at the top for a bit, so I'm just going to leave you with some pictures of the views taken.

rolling greens

fisheye #1

fisheye #2

fisheye #3

#fisheye 4

I loved that it was sunny, but we didn't feel the heat in the strong wind up there.

on our way down

After our little walk to Orrest Head, we went back past the town centre, and headed to Bowness (30 minutes walk if memory hasn't failed me). 

okay I will remember to crop my flower pictures in future

I saw almost everyone holding an ice-cream cone in their hands, and even though I was about to fall sick, I told F that we must have an ice-cream cone each too. With a cone each in hand, we took a leisurely stroll along the banks, looked at families come together and little children holding onto tiny nets that they used to scoop the waters. Oh, and the swans. There were so many of them that it's become a really common sight; unlike the only two swans that we have here in Botanical Gardens.

Anyway, we bought two cruise tickets to Ambleside (another town) and hopped on board. On our way there, we saw people sailing in keelboats and dinghies, as well as men fishing in little boats.

tacking...

tacked...

and heeling!

I've sort of forgotten what we did at Ambleside, but I do remember walking to their town centre (of sorts). And once again, more pictures of the place!

Life was as slow as we took it to be throughout our stay in Windermere. I enjoyed the pace and place, even though Windermere itself was crowded with many tourists, both locals and foreigners. I guess I now know of alternatives to avoid crowds...