STFU

When people say annoying things that are totally uncalled for sometimes,

I think to myself quietly

weekend in brief

'twas a great weekend to the last official week of lessons.

Caught Company at NLB on Friday evening, thinking that it'd give me a clearer idea
of my take on singlehood, relationships and love... though it sort of ended with me being slightly
more perplexed bout these issues than before. But... since it's really quite pointless to worry
bout these things for now, I'll just let things be what they currently are for now.

Met up with the usual ktowy fellas after the play a random pub in the
Duxton Road cluster to have a few drinks. Ah Ong finally brought his girlfriend to meet
us and we all had a few good laughs over the dice version of Bluff, credits to my non-existent lying *cough* skills. On hindsight, I think it might've been due to the bad fengshui of my seat...
or maybe it was just the alcohol... hmm.

Woke up slightly late and slightly groggy on Saturday morning as a
result of the drinks last night. Jenny gave me a wake-up call that somehow made it feel like
uni mornings all over again; getting all flustered for waking up later than I should. We attended a
brief workshop on coffee appreciation together at Highlander, along Kampong Bahru Road and it
was interesting to learn more about the roasting process of coffee beans, what goes into the roasting of our local kopis, and the main types of beans available out there. We even had a go at making our own latte art for our cappucinos; though it was barista's hands doing most of the work. Met Bun after she renewed her passport and we hopped over to CSHH for a quickie brunch + yet another coffee.
Mmm... tasty patties and salami sandwich indeed.

Moving onto Jolb's place after, whatever plans we had made for a
barbecue were quickly dashed with the onslaught of a heavy drizzle-turned-downpour.
Thank goodness the weather was the only depressing part of the evening. To ensure that the food didn't go to waste, Jolb's mum deep-fried some of the prepared food and we all had a good chat with her over our processed and sodium-laden dinner. Their warm hospitality made the evening turn out to be such a cosy affair, against the backdrop of a gloomy overcast sky outside the tall glass windows - 是幸福的.

After the rain had subsided, we decided to head to the pool for a dip. No thanks to
the rain, the waters were brrrrrr-eezing (by my standards, they were freezing)... but no matter,
we still managed to waddle in the jacuzzi pool, splash water at one another,
belt out drony out-of-tune ballads and swim a couple of laps as I froze
 my buns off. I can't remember when was the last time I did anything
like that (probably the Bali days a few years back?)
and it was awesome.

Numb fingers, body all stiff and cold, the girls let me take a shower first. I couldn't help
but feel like I was an upright frozen drumstick that was being thawed as the hot, running water from the tap washed over me. Slowly but surely, I felt life returning to my body, starting from the fingertips -
那也是幸福的.

Made it down to ECP on Sunday and I headed out to sea for a quick surf. Body's still
aching from the very short session but I'm glad that the longboard's finally taken care of and I can now move back to the shortboard that I've very ashamedly left at Uncle Richard's workshop for the
longest time ever!

It's the second unofficial day of school holidays so far and I think I've cleared most,
if not all, of the mandatory work I need to complete. It's a couple more days to go before we're
flying to Queensland and yes! I can hardly wait.

the E word

Ego.

This three-letter word is a tiny heavyweight; 

its mere length of 3 letters is by no means an accurate indication of 

the frightening conceitedness some people seem to have.

The ones who insist that they don't, usually have tonnes of it. 

If you're not observant enough, you might just fall for it.

It is nearly impossibile to hear a sincere (forced, maybe) apology from their mouths.
Their declinations to accept help from anyone and everyone - 

"nope, I don't need your help, I can do it on my own" (sounds familiar?)

can be seen as an indicator of independent behaviour, 

but when overdone, simply become outright refusals in accepting that 

there can be methods/answers better than theirs.

They must just really be afraid of having that proven.

Ironically, the ones who will not hesitate to admit that they are full of ego

usually have that in them in much lesser denominations.

They reach out for helping hands (that don't mind 

lending themselves) in times of need,

not forgetting to say "thank you" after the help's been rendered, of course.

They understand that no matter how good they may be in something, 

there will always be someone else out there who will be better, 

stronger or smarter.

Ego.

All of us have some of this self-importance in us,

some of us a little more than the rest.

In 5, 3, 1 and poof

On hindsight, I don't remember hearing my own voice shaking that badly 

when I first stood in front of my class to address them some few months back.

I'd said what I had to say.
Who knows, I might regret what I'd done tonight in time to come,

but for now, I can't be any more glad that I've gotten rid of the laden stone in my heart.

Time to get better :)

Henry, temporary.

Being a closet stickler for ulu places, I had to visit after learning that this cafe had only been set up a few months ago but will only be around till next February. The building where it's located is set to be enbloc-ed for future redevelopment, so most of the other tenants have already vacated the premise. Apart from the handful of residents who have yet to move out from their homes, and just a couple of other operating shops, it was very much void of the usual buzz found elsewhere on our island...

which is exactly what I love about such places.

However, despite the seemingly deserted exterior, it would take only a second to realize that business was rather brisk upon entering the cafe. It's not a big place (at all); all indoor and outdoor (pet-friendly) tables were taken up so we ended up at the bar counter until some other patrons left. 

The folks who were working diligently behind the bar counter to serve us the yummy offerings were really approachable and friendly; the lovely fair lady wasted no time in explaining the difference between black and white coffees when I inquired.

I ordered a cappucino and it came with a cute little morsel of a home-made (I'm assuming here) chocolate cookie; a lovely touch. And while the coffee's been highly-raved, I found it somewhat unpalatable to my unseasoned taste-buds. I thought it tasted a little tangy and ended on a sharp but bitter (is that possible?) note; not a finish that I particularly enjoy. Anyway, I shall try the other variations if I ever drop by again soon; I'm sure my taste-buds will not have too much difficulty finding something they enjoy.

To fill our tummies, we had the Flourless Chocolate Cake, Nutella Banana Panini and a serving of some Savoury Scones.

flourless choc cake - I like how the top-crust cracked and the slice crumbled when we stuck our forks in, its dense texture and the satisfyingly rich chocolatey taste. For cheapskates like me who refuse to pay for another slice, the only gripe we would have is... why so small slice? :(

Okay, just kidding - I really wanted to try something else instead.

nutella banana panini - This homely and comforting combination can hardly (if ever) go wrong. It was a sweet treat that was well-worth the calories; long slices of banana and gooey nutella sandwiched between the warm and toasty chewy bread. Oh and did I mention that they were awfully generous with the nutella spread? We had trouble keeping the nutella from oozing out of the edges of the panini, only to form tiny 'wasted' blobs on the plate - but knowing the glutton that is me, of course no nutella was 'wasted' in the process of devouring this tasty treat.

We had some savoury scones (cheesy and 'chivey') too. Baked-to-order, the crumbly insides of the scones were piping hot when served. Quite a pity that the serving size was rather tiny though. 

The minimalistic set-up of the temporary space consisted of simple plywood bar-tops, naked incandescent bulbs dangling from the ceiling, lovely radio music (YES), and a range of tasteful magazines for customers' reading pleasure. The crowd ranged variedly from families (inclusive of aunties, uncles, fathers and mothers - who'd have thunk they're into such places too) to dating and married couples, bffs, etc.

That afternoon, we talked about how it was possible to understand "the feeling of having one's balls shrunken" (without needing any) as we looked at mind-blowing photographs of people balancing on trapezes high up in the foggy mountains, and learnt that both the atomic bomb and Comic Sans are considered to be in the Top-10 list of Worst Inventions - at least according to a particular magazine.
Oh, and I also managed to my Science scripts marked. Talk about productivity!

四

A friend recently asked me, "How long have you been single now?" 

I stopped for a few moments to rummage through memories that I've been collecting in my mind over more recent times for the answer. When I finally did manage to find the answer, it somehow felt a little odd that I was surprised by it.

4 years - that's how long it's been since D. 

Wow. 

It just doesn't feel like it's been 4 years.
Times like that make me question my judgement of time; I can't decide if 4 years should feel much longer or slightly shorter than my current perception of 1461 days.

Happily tripping along (pun unintended), I've managed to get clearance for my uni course and, hey look, who's a full-fledged (beginning) teacher now? I couldn't have imagined myself visiting all the places that I've visited or doing all the wacky things that I've done 4 years ago too; much less do some of them solo. Meeting all the wonderful people along the way, it's been an amazing journey and I can't be more happy with how my life has been unfolding thus far.

Citing the main reasons for the break-up back then as a need for personal development and self-discovery, I would like to think that I've pretty much attained them, more than less. Not too long before I broke the bad news to D, I realized how terrible I was behaving as a person, daughter/sister, friend and girlfriend. It was then that I started thinking about how it was important for me to become a better person before I got into yet another relationship, after nearly 3 years of being in 2 relationships without any hiatus to reflect about things. And of course, it was also important to have my share of fun before things start getting slightly more serious.

Just a couple of things I'd done/am still doing since the big break:

I'd...
- learnt to love and define myself for who I am instead of getting addressed as the girlfriend of someone else,
- gotten out of my comfort zone and put myself in places and situations I never wanted to be in not too long ago just for the heck of it; though this is not to say that I don't regret some of them,
- started becoming way more appreciative of my family (especially) and friends who were always there,
- begun telling myself that it's alright to make mistakes (I'm trying very hard to convince my kids now),
- become more open to differences; be it in terms of ideals and beliefs, preferences, etc,
- and importantly, reflecting a lot about myself and some of the things happening around me.

I don't think it'd have been possible for me to have enjoyed life as much if I haven't been doing any of the above-mentioned things during this period, so yea, I believe that I'm a changed person (however slight) now... for the better, thank you very much.

Having drawn that new conclusion about myself, I now feel somewhat ready to continue growing, alongside another person this time round. I'm glad I was talked out of "waiting till I turned 30" sometime late last year, because it was only then that I started to go out on casual dates with new people. It's been a few interesting experiences so far... and they've all given me a much clearer idea of what my preferences are.

I'm obviously not ready to make any serious commitments right now, but if someone apt comes along... who knows what's going to happen?

getting psyched

for AUSTRALIA!

What do you want from me?

Sometimes, my kids do things that confuse me.

For example, they would insist that the microphone be fixed (when it's not working) and I use it so as to "protect your (mine) throat and voice" (in their words, not mine k).
You must be thinking "Aww... what sweet and thoughtful children."

But wait! It would only be a few moments later when they start to invite me to scream my head off at them (I jest, just in case someone thinks I'm really abusing them) for the ruckus that they're creating.

Dear children, in the words of Adam Lambert, What Do You Want From ME?!

2 things from final practicum

My absence from the blog this time round not too long ago was exceptionally long (or at least slightly longer than all the previous 'fake hiatuses' that I've tried to put in place) due to my final teaching practice that was just over on Friday.

Now that the whole 10 weeks is over, I can't be any more glad to announce that I'm finally a beginning teacher! 

It's been an utmost period of trying and learning in the past 10 weeks. What I've learnt about being a teacher in this seemingly short 10 weeks seemed to have easily outweigh all that textbook knowledge that the uni's been trying to drill into our minds for the past 4 years.

I've experienced stress like I've not gone through in a very long while when the practice had just begun. While it was mainly individual responsibility (or group ones at most) back in pulau ntu, I now have to be responsible for the learning of so many little kiddos, whose minds are just like sponges, absorbing and picking up whatever information that is lying around, without going through much of a 'filtering process'. The thought of imparting the wrong grammatical, mathematical or even scientific concepts to the kids terrifies me. I would repeat a theory 10 times if that would help them remember a concept better, but what if the language I had used somehow caused some misinterpretation somewhere along the line? And what if that error stays in their minds for the subsequent 9 years, or worst, for the rest of their lives? How can I ever make it up to a kid who grows up thinking that one-tenth is greater than one-half? I can't! It's not possible to 're-write' the information on their minds like a DVD-RW.

It may be a little hard to imagine me in such a stressed mode since I'm usually too darned well-known for being lazy laid-back, but honestly, the pressure of having to do such detailed lesson plans on a frequent basis and preparation of lesson resources made it impossible not to feel the stress. On hindsight, I guess some of it was really self-imposed though.

So, blabbing aside, here's just a very quick summary of 2 of the more important things that kind of stuck:

1. You must fail before you can succeed

It really was a tough act (still is), trying to juggle lesson plans, classroom management and collection of homework. When I thought I had one of these three balls well under my thumb, something had to go wrong with the other two balls, somehow. It was so common that I would get one piece of positive feedback but two negative ones in return and that made my heart crumble a little each time. It was demoralizing, and I was disheartened, to say the least. I probably wouldn't have been that bothered though, if I hadn't been making adjustments to make things better, based on feedback from different sources and that made things a lot worse - it was still no avail despite already having act upon feedback - it could only mean that I really suck at this whole teaching business. Or like what I came to realize later on, maybe I'm not the only one who faces this problem. Sometimes, it takes more than one feeble try to get things right... this overused cliche's been repeated to death, but people will not fully grasp the meaning of it until he/she's experienced countless failures before finally seeing the first glimmers of success. I'm really glad to announce that I'm finally seeing the first signs of light - looking forward to the time when I will finally become an awesome juggler.

The Power of Affirmation

By virtue of my major at university, teaching English should have been the most enjoyable, if not easy of the three subjects that I took while on practicum. But it wasn't the case, not in the first few weeks at least. I'd never imagined that I would enjoy teaching Math and Science so much more than English. At one point, I felt so horrible that my kids did not understand the simple grammatical concepts and activities that I'd tried to conduct during lessons (mainly because I did not fully understand what the class ability was yet) that I began dreading going for English lessons altogether; feedback from my mentor was bad - whatever I tried to do was truly beyond the children's comprehension and they simply didn't see the rationale of things. Finally, I broke down in front of my mentor one afternoon, who must've really been taken aback at my supposed fragility. In contrast to the negative feedback that I'd been getting for English lessons, I discovered the powerful influence of affirmative words from other mentors for my other subjects. In short, it was an instant ego boost. It felt good to see personal efforts being recognized and paying off and that gave me some motivation to want to improve on my delivery for English as well. With some words of encouragement from Jenny and tips on how to improve my lessons, I later went on to enjoy the teaching of English again so much more. The learning point of this would be for me to remember what a little affirmation can do to boost oneself - Dear Ms Chang, please don't ever forget to praise your kids to affirm their commendable behaviour!

Apart from learning the 2 important lessons that I've just mentioned, I've also learnt to become (very) good friends with the risograph and photocopier; actually began having daily conversations with them so as to coax them into working well.

So yes, 10 weeks of learning, and more to go.
Let's go Ms Chang!

媽媽的關心

有些時候，我覺得媽媽口說她在關心我們時，其實心裡有包含著許多擔心的元素。

例 ＃1 － 媽媽‘擔心’我

對弟弟說：

“唉，妳有沒有朋友或者朋友的哥哥可以介紹給姊姊認識的？

你那個 XXX 朋友不是沒有女朋友咯？”

例 ＃2 － 媽媽 ‘擔心’ 弟弟

對我說：

“唉，妳有沒有朋友或者朋友的妹妹可以介紹給弟弟認識的？

弟弟會做家務的，不錯啦。”

老媽呀, 你這次弄得我真的無言！
拜託在外時不要說醬的話好不好，我會不知道要把臉往哪裡藏地。
－＿－'"

impromptu lunch date

Lunch: stir-fry pumpkin with dried scallop and mushroom, pan-fried salmon, (pre-boiled) saute cauliflower with oyster sauce. Lotus root soup with some other starchy root, dried dates and pork.

For the most part of my practicum so far, I've been having my lunch in the staff lounge more often than not. Today, I decided to join my colleagues for lunch in the canteen. I ended up spending half the time in conversation with a little girl whom came up to say Hello at the hawker centre some few nights back, and I learnt so much about her in the very short 15 minutes. I don't know how she always manages to spot me since I haven't taught her at all, but she's always a joy to talk to so I'm not complaining. 

Even if she's telling me what's yummy in my lunch box and what's not hur hur.

I got more than what I'd expected during lunch today. 

Maybe I should try to do this more often and get to know my other students better too.

brow job

Mumsy renewed her facial package with them and the lady boss offered to do my brows for free so... I got a free brow job!

Before

My brows have always been quite undefined and sparse, and I am far from fastidious in keeping them trimmed and neat most of the time. I would get them trimmed once in a couple of months, and the tips will look really untidy just before I get down to the trimming; and I can't shape them for nuts! When I stayed in hostel with Jenny, I begged her to trim my brows for me all the time and I was really lucky that she would obliged every time so sweetly! I didn't have the best pair of tweezers though, not until a much later part so she had to make do with a mismatched pair :x

At the beauty salon, looking really silly with Santa Claus-ish brows

After putting some numbing cream, the assistant put some cling wrap (yes, cling wrap) over my brows to let it settle for 15 minutes or so. The entire embroidery experience wasn't too much of a pain until the last part, the effects of the numbing cream must have worn off or something; my hair kinda stood each time the blade penetrated my skin, not from the pain though, more from the sensation of having your skin cut by a blade. Did not really help that the lady boss wasn't the most gentle person around - at some point in time, it somehow felt like she was trying to suffocate my eyeballs when she repeatedly pressed really hard on them. I was just glad when the entire ordeal was over.

Anyway, I shall keep my rants to a minimal since it was free. So yeap, no more complaints.

It was sore and very red on the first day, but thankfully, it went down just as quickly within the next couple of days. There wasn't too much scabbing since I'd been diligently applying some moisturizing cream over the wound after my daily showers. 

After 1

After 2

Mumsy thought that I looked really intimidating the first 2 days after the process and couldn't help but laugh out really loud whenever she looked at my new brows. And thankfully, the unnaturally deep and dark brown faded to a lighter shade of brown that looks much more natural. 

I'm quite happy with what I have now.

Yes to the end of fussing over daily eyebrow-shaping!

All I need now is just a razor to do the job every 2 weeks or so.

departe

I like what I do, really do. But at the same time, I'm perpetually thinking about what life could or would be after this phase. It fills me up with so much hope and yearning that I could just explode from all that anticipation sometimes. And I really don't need anyone to remind me it's not a good thing to think about leaving when I've yet to even officially begin; personal notes to self have been far more frequent than you'd expect.

Burst into uncontrollable laughter when Mumsy showed me an article in Wanbao earlier tonight, about a man convulsing and puking uncontrollably onboard a plane after getting a whiff of some pungent durians brought onboard by another passenger. No passenger would admit that s/he was the one who brought the durians up and that poor sock had to confine himself to puking in the tiny toilet cubicle moments after the flight took off, for the rest of the 3-4 hour (not too sure bout the duration actually) flight.

It wasn't that funny until I started imagining how comical it would be if that happened to YF too.
Not exactly the best sister around, if you don't already know by now...

annoying habits (v2)

it's time to find fault with me again:

Miss Chang, the 'grammar nazi'

I don't proclaim to be some grammar genius, because I'm most definitely not. That said, if I do come across sentences where subjects and verbs don't agree somehow (e.g. singular noun with plural verb, use of wrong tenses, etc), I start correcting them mentally. Sometimes, I blurt them out the more glaring mistakes before I can help it.
And that's where people usually start getting annoyed.

"Who gives a shit about grammar?"
"So what if it's wrong since it's understood?"
They say.

  I'm an English teacher to-be, and I give a shit about it.
Maybe I can pretend not to, but it just gets on my nerves sometimes when people say they speak/write English and yet they can't even get the most basic rules right
(I love Singlish and that is not bad English by the way, not by my biased definition anyhow).

Some think that I correct people because I love ridiculing them, but I like to think that they are simply not aware of (or have forgotten) what the correct language forms are and I'm merely pointing out the conventional forms so as to increase their awareness, so they can start using what's right again.

Correcting pronunciations

This is similar to correcting bad grammar (above), and again, I don't claim to know the pronunciation of every single word found in the English dictionary (Chinese one too). Am thankful though that I've been equipped with the basic IPA knowledge to find out pronunciations of words in dictionaries when need be... and am even more thankful for sites like Dictionary.com because I can hear unfamiliar words actually being pronounced. How great is that!

I get my pronunciation corrected a fair bit by my friends too, but that's fine by me, because at least I know what's correct and what's not after these corrections.

For example, I never knew "sachet" was pronounced "sa-shay" until Jenny pointed it out to me not too long ago. I'd always thought it was "sair-chard" (2nd syllable like orchard's).


One of my favourites (after correction by Jenny again) has got to be the word "liaise".
Maybe it'll come as a surprise that it's pronounced "lee-yays" (or maybe not, since this verb comes from the noun "liaison") and not "lai-years" like what the entire world's (yes SG's my oyster) been pronouncing the whole time.

And another all-time favourite, Wednesday.
The "d" in Wednesday is always silent; doesn't matter if it's British or American English
(checked both dictionaries). So it's "wenz-day", not "wed-nes-day".

Some that are not too obvious because of differences in pronunciation across languages would be: jalapeno, mojito, and fajita - the "j" is sounded like a "h".
I have to admit that I find it quite funny to hear "mo-jee-to" and "fa-jee-ta" in bars and restaurants though. But of course, that's just me. I'm quite the ass, if you haven't already realized by now.

The Impatient Dining Companion

We were on our way to Loysel's for lunch one afternoon when Bun and Jenny brought this up, it's something relevant to the title so here goes...

Friends get the impression that I'm impatient when I'm ordering my food.

I make an 'announcement' of my choices once I've decided on what I'm having;
and it'll usually go like that: "Okay, I know what I want to eat already!"
Even though I've never actually asked my friends to hurry up and make a decision
(I don't understand how some people can take forever to decide, but okay, that's another issue altogether and there's no need for me to make an issue out of it so I'll wait quietly for everyone to be done deciding), my 'announcements' always seem to have a hurrying effect on my dining companions. 
That's not really my intention to begin with, and what I really intend to do each time I say "I've decided!" is to let friends know they can call the server/waiter over if everyone is ready to have their orders taken. It doesn't help that I'm usually the first, if not second to decide on what I'm having for my meal (guess I'm quite the expert menu 'skimmer'), because I'll usually end up making the 'announcement' before anyone else can.

It's probably a good idea for me to start looking at the menu only after everyone has decided on their meals.

Sitting on the fence

doing this way too often.

Decide on a stand, woman!

How hard can it be to take sides?

the end of something good

After living what seemed like the new Dolce Vita for the longest time, my last vacation as a student finally came to an end two days ago. Looking ahead, I'm quite certain that my next prolonged period of idling won't be here anytime soon. 

And so, I'm feeling quite thankful that I'd been able to busy myself in the past few weeks with lots of catching up (with the same dear old people, of course), checking out ulu cafes, taking long walks around places that I never really got to stopping by previously, etc. Instead of having to meet deadlines or fulfill other academic obligations like we've been doing the entire semester, I was granted the luxury of learning to take things slow. Really slow. 

A slice of Antoinette ($9++) at Antoinette's

I learnt to take sips instead of gulps, nibbles instead of gobbles (of course, my Kindle made it a lot easier to do that), and pictures instead of mere snapshots. I made sure that nothing was too serious for me to fuss over, had plenty of time to mull over some issues in my life and it turned out to be such a wonderful time. 

Milk chocolate mousse cake infused with earl grey, topped with a bubble that oozes of tangy raspberry coulis when burst. The unusual sweet and sour combination worked quite well for me; both flavours balancing each other evenly. 

(I still think the bubble looks like a giant nipple though)

Oh, and this year, I finally learnt how to wrap bak zhangs at Grandma's place.

Wrapping's the easiest part of the entire process; preparation of the ingredients and cooking of the dumplings after they've been wrapped is so much more tedious. With quite a lot of difficulty, I finally managed to make mine decent-looking when tied; Aunt mentioned that the ones I'd wrapped look really tiny, just like the ones Mum used to wrap when she'd first started.

There were a little leftover ingredients so Aunt suggested that I bring them home so that Mum could do some wrapping too. I helped out with the preparation of the ingredients early morning (e.g. cleaning and shelling of salted eggs, chopping of mushroom, garlic and onion) and managed to wrap a few more bak zhangs before scooting off to NIE for a meeting with my practicum supervisor.

I thought my last weekend of the vacation was kind of ruined when I did something regrettable Saturday morning; spent the afternoon kicking myself in bed when I should really have been out windsurfing or making more out of the precious weekend. 

Thankfully, I reminded myself that I have the power to turn things round (it's all in the mind!) and things got so much better in the evening. Post-tuition, I met up with a smaller-than-usual KTOWY (everyone will be coming home soon though :D) at Zhen's for a barbecue dinner. The food items bought and prepared by Zhen and her family were marinated and grilled to BBQ perfection; Boss' meat joystick was a big hit (ok, sounds slightly inappropriate), Ah Long's beancurd tarts were delish, and the bak zhangs I brought were just to make numbers lol. Good food is often paired with awesome company and we had much of both that evening. Boss provided us girls with a breakdown of the different types of guys we're likely to come across (generally) in life and I suppose my favourite's the "gong dua dai" kinda guy - sounds cute, no? Don't judge me for picking a favourite based on what it sounds like please. We played In-Between too, for lack of better games, and my luck was unbelievably horrible. I make a mental note whenever I start cursing or saying swear words (raising self-awareness ahem), and records show that frequency is highest when I meet horrible drivers on the road, followed by times when I drop my sail while windsurfing, and finally, when I play In-Between wtf.

Sunday was great too even though we didn't have the best of winds; I had a really enjoyable time surfing and it's also partly because of the trash-picking that we did before that. 

Ended the evening with a cousin's wedding dinner and here are some snaps:

with Mumsy

YF

and Yihao! Like he mentioned on Facebook, it's been the longest time since the 3 of us took a picture together.

with the 'little melons'.

Mum and Dad :)

Weddings usually leave me going "Awwww... they're going to spend the rest of their lives together now. How sweet is that..." in my mind, but this one made me have cynical thoughts; maybe I've been thinking too much about the impermanence of life, love, and such of late.

And that marks the happy closure of my final vacation as a student.

Final practicum's finally started on Monday; things have yet to get busy (very soon though, I'm sure), and I'm really happy to be here - I hope I'm not speaking too soon since it's just the 2nd day so far. It feels wonderful to have my own workstation (finally!) and have superiors acknowledge my presence on the first day of work. Not to mention I have really nice CTs too; one of whom gave me a 'welcome gift' on my first day:

I'm feeling really blessed right now.

To show my appreciation for all that I've been bestowed upon,

I should really stop paying just lip service and start working hard! :)

小動作，大感動

Something that happened at ECP today:

Halfway through a half-eaten bak zhang during lunch at our usual stone bench this afternoon, a man came up to us and suggested to Chubs and Yuetmun that it'd be nice if we could pick up trash littering the beach (the bay right in front of PA) because there seemed to be more rubbish than usual today. 

So off the three of them went, picking up pieces of plastic as they walked along the beach.

I continued working on my bak zhang, carefully picking out mushroom slices, chestnuts and fatty meat to chew on while skillfully avoiding the sinful clumps of sticky glutinous rice. With eyes observing what was going on down on the sandy beach, I thought aloud, somewhat bemusedly, "Wah, self-imposed CWO?" when I saw how Chubs and Yuetmun set off with the man without hesitation. In the midst of the semi-devouring of my yummy bak zhang(s), I saw another lady join them in the cleaning act; later learnt that the man is her husband.

"Let's get a plastic bag to contain the trash!", the man suggested again, and someone (I can't remember who) came back with two large trash bags from the restaurant.

Bit by bit, the four of them started filling one of the two trash bags; one person would be holding the mouth of the bag open so that everyone else can throw the bits of trash picked up into it with greater ease. By the time I was done with my bak zhang (*burps* :p), I decided to join in the 'fun' with CY too. It started off as a relatively dry affair for me; I stuck very closely to the shoreline, never venturing beyond the point where the sand and water met. I picked up small broken pieces of plastic sheets, bits of styrofoam from food containers and this trash-picking act must have been gratifying in one way or another, because in no time, I found myself going deeper and deeper into the water, trying to 'go after' floating bits of trash. 

I don't know what made me decide to step into the water (when I haven't changed into my wet gear), and when I finally realized that the water was at my chest level, I decided to get out of the water and change into my rash guard (and floppy fisherman hat!) before heading back to pick up more trash. 

On my way back to the water, I saw an old lady, and two more other windsurfers join in the trash-picking (one of them even swam quite far out). For a moment, I felt a warm and fuzzy feeling (partly probably due to the heat) in my heart after observing this chain effect. They began picking up the trash too not because they were told or asked to, but instead, did so of their own accord, after seeing others do it. 

And I had to ask myself Why.

Was it because they felt that the beach's cleanliness should be a collective and shared responsibility?

Was it because they felt that more hands make lighter work?

Was it because they wanted some recognition from the beach users?
Was it because they only realized how dirty the beach is after others started picking up all that trash?
Was it because they felt like doing something nice by helping to make the beach cleaner for the other windsurfers/beach users?

Or was it simply because they were just too bored from the waiting of hopeful winds promised by ULFP?

I know it's just a very simple deed, and of course, trash-picking can not and should not be placed on the same rung of deeds as say, pulling someone out of a burning house or even volunteering at some shelter/home, but still, it was a very nice gesture that was made (assuming they were motivated by some of the reasons that I've just tried to provide) that I'm sure all the beach users would appreciate. For me, I  felt that it was a pleasant experience to witness this goodness in man and I was also truly surprised by the responses that could be triggered with just a bit of initiative by a single person.

Anyhow, the two trash bags were filled up very quickly with the help of people who chipped in a bit of time and effort. Some of the other things that were picked up in addition to the slimy plastic sheets/bags and styrofoam bits included: slimy straws, empty packet-drink/shampoo sachets, plastic cups, nylon strings and ropes, a durian husk (!) and more slimy plastic sheets. It made me a little upset thinking about how some people simply treat the sea as a dumping ground, judging from all the trash that we've picked in that very short period of time; there's really a lot more we can do to educate. And I was kind of hoping (with anti-fervour) that I should not be so unlucky as to come across really gross trash like a used condom (thank goodness no!).

The water was exceptionally clear today; at knee level, I could still see my toes on the sand bed. To be honest, it'd still have been this clear even without us picking up those trash. Knowing that we have a trash-free environment that's made possible by ourselves (however temporal it might be) to windsurf/swim in however, seemed to have made that matter to a slightly lesser extent.

healthier living

... or at least what I think I've been up to recently. 

trying out the elliptical trainer at Bun's school gym two weeks ago.

Have been furiously excluding carbs (e.g. rice, pastas and white bread) from daily meals and replacing them with more meats, nuts, soy products (I need proteins!) and fruits and vegetables (need to pang sai still). It's not exactly tough for me to follow those eating 'rules' that I've set for myself, because I really enjoy eating them anyway. 

But once in a while, I get mild cravings for carbs and I allow myself to indulge a little; just felt like I had to eat a bagel while out with Bun one afternoon last week, with a cream cheese spread no less. Have been cutting down on desserts of late too, though I hold this obviously flawed mentality that it's okay (or not that bad) if I'm sharing. Blah.

I must confess that I'm not exactly following any real diet plan that's been well-proven or tested.

So I try to make it up by exercising. In addition to windsurfing during weekends, I've taken to jogging at least 2 times a week, clocking an average of about 5 klicks each time. I started off by jogging laps in the riverside park connector just below my place, but realized my preference for non-repetitive routes in no time; and so, I started jogging to places like Macpherson, Potong Pasir, Lavender (Loysel's Toy!), Geylang and Boon Keng etc. Just two nights ago, I did Potong Pasir - Joo Seng - Sennett Estate with YF and it felt truly great to jog past my primary school again; was reminded of all the fun and silly times we had back then and was somewhat pleasantly amused by the whimsical and nature-inspired road names in that area (Willow Avenue, Butterfly Avenue, Mulberry Avenue etc).

If you'd seen me running my 2.4 during secondary school times (or even poly days), it's probably a little hard for you to believe I'm speaking about the pleasures that stem from jogging right now. But I guess that's just human, we always enjoy doing things more when it's a choice and not a chore; I choose to jog now because I want to and not because I am required to.

sweaty but happy.

In addition to the light jogs, I also got started on Jillian Michaels' (all thanks to Jenny! :D) 30-day Shred Workout on Youtube. It's a combination of cardio, strength and abs drills and the buckets of sweat that would flow out from my pores at the end (actually, it starts midway) of each session is unbelievable. Unbelievably gross if you were to see me then hoho. It's divided into three levels (with increasing difficulty) and one will need to complete 10 days of workout for each level before proceeding to the next. I haven't been very strict with myself (i.e. inconsistent) but I've finally allowed myself to move beyond level one! Got started on level two yesterday and today, I'm feeling soreness in parts of my body that were unfamiliar to even myself before they started aching.

I've come to conclude that working out (eating healthy too!) keeps me relatively happy, even though I'm usually cursing while at it, and I really want to keep up at it even after work begins unofficially next week. 

(I've lost 2 kilos btw, and YF just commented my muscles feel harder when I flexed my arms for him to get a feel of it!)

favourites...

Unlike many other people, I've always thought it quite impossible to settle on a favourite.

When people ask me a question like "What's your favourite (insert topic)?",
I would take the longest damned time,
go through a tedious process of raking through my head for an answer only to say:
"Still haven't decided on my favourite _____ yet leh."
It's definitely not the answer that askers have waited for.
Over time, I realized that people don't really care if I have a favourite _____ or not,
they just want an answer so I began saying (very reluctantly though)
that my favourite foods are chai por and ice cream.
Reluctant because I'm not sure if I love them so much to the extent that I should 'favouritize' them,
and there's a whole lot of other foods that I've yet to try; what if I've just not met my favourite food yet?
(But there's no doubt that I really, really love chai por and ice cream)

I'm not too sure if it's a problem (yet), being unable to decide on favourites,
but I sort of enjoy the process of discovering my favourites;
e.g. thinking about qualities that make me like them so much.
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one around who puts so much thought into deciding what I truly like.
And I don't have a doubt that makes me weird as hell.

To illustrate, I love chai por so much because of its savoriness.
But that's not enough to justify it as one of my favourite foods.
I love how the sweetness of chai por can be tasted and is intensified
(despite its lingering savoriness) with each chew.
I love how the 2 basic tastes complement each other,
and how I'm able to taste that with each irresistible crunch.
I can eat nearly everything with chai por in them.
And I've even thought about the possibility of chai por as an ice-cream flavour.
A combination of two of my favourite foods, how great is that!

Anyway, things are slowly changing.
I've began to speed up the process of deciding on some of my favourite things.

terrible person, i am

Scenario 1:

This happened sometime back; more than a year ago.

Was playing Kinect with a group of friends at a friend's place when I spotted a woman coming down the stairs. I automatically chirped "Hello Auntie!" in a friendly gesture for having assumed that was his mum. Apart from turning silent, everyone else also turned their gaze to me.
My exuberance quickly turned to awkwardness and embarrassment when I realized my folly.

It was his elder sister. And she's really just 2-3 years older than we are.

I was so embarrassed for insinuating she looked much older than that (it was the dim lights I swear) that I wish I could dig a hole in the ground, jump into it and bury myself.

Apologized profusely afterwards but it probably didn't help to change her terrible impression of me.

Scenario 2:

This happened last Sunday.
Spotted an unfamiliar and rather mature(-looking) lady sitting at the usual gang's bench at ECP; since she kept to herself her iPad most of the time, and no one's actually done any introduction, I did not have any chance to talk to her.
Only realized that she's somehow related to a friend (let's call her X) when I saw them chatting much later on the grass some few steps away from the stone bench.

When X came back to the stone bench (her friend's still sitting on the grass),
out of curiosity and to confirm my guess, I asked her without hesitation, "X, your mum ah?"

To which she smacked me hard on my arms and bum,

"NO IT'S MY FRIEND, AND SHE'S THE SAME AGE AS I AM (i.e. 29)"

Couldn't help but started howling with laughter and gasping in mock-horror.

The people around who caught the conversation started laughing too; though I wasn't too sure if they were laughing at my gungho-ness in asking such questions (without consideration of people's appearance) or the fact that X's friend really resemble a motherly figure.

I'm truly a terrible person. Karma will come my way soon, I'm quite sure of that.

a little slice of Sweden

You must have thought that I'm referring to Ikea in the title.

But neh, it's not Ikea.

After two rounds (was that considered one lol?) of L4D2 with the girlies on Monday, we took a walk down Haji Lane and Arab Street and found a quaint-looking Swedish cafe/bistro called fika at the end of Arab Street (along Beach Road to be more specific).

Liking that cute little moose atop the letter "i"

One of the 2 shopfronts; this one faces Beach Road.

It was tea-time (sorta) and the heat was melting us, so the idea of a nice place to sit down for a cuppa and some cakes/desserts was really enticing. Thought it would be an interesting place to check out since my dining experiences with Swedish cuisine are mostly can only be associated with Ikea.

Since we were still kind of full from our pancakey brunch, we settled for just drinks and cakes.

Ordered 2 cakes to share, and the girlies had 2 pots of tea while I had a capp.
Not too sure if it's self-service but we walked up to the counter to have our orders placed. There wasn't too many people around when we arrived (2-3 other tables were occupied), and I really enjoyed the sort of tranquility that filled the place. The clean-looking walls and furniture contributed somewhat to that peacefulness too. 

Cappucino ($5.50) - a cuppa a day.

This was quite basic, and the first time I'm seeing chocolate syrup being used to decorate a cappucino.

(have been cafe-spotting a fair bit recently hehe)

fika roughly translates to taking a coffe/squash/tea break (with something sweet) with some friends or family, so it was most fitting that we were there at that point in time!

Caramel-something-something cake ($7.90)

Chocolate-something-fudge cake ($7.90)

The cakes are a little on the pricey side (observed that most other cafes price similar cakes/tarts between $5-6) so thank goodness they tasted quite alright. Both cakes were tender and moist, and the chocolate tasted rich. It felt slightly decadent each time I delivered a morsel of cake to my mouth.

elegant-looking plates

shake shake shake

The cafe's white-washed interior and big windows makes it look very clean, bright and inviting; something that I take to be a common feature of Scandinavian interior architectural design
(again, I have to disclaim my knowledge is limited to Ikea showrooms and catalogs).

Not too bad a place to catch up with pals, and I wouldn't mind coming back again to try some of the Swedish mains when I have slightly more money to spare.

pancakes for brunch

Winded up at Peace Centre on Monday with the girlies after an unsuccessful karaoke attempt at Chinatown; we decided to go for some L4D2 (imagine: lots of screaming, dodging, and clueless crazy clicking) instead.

Since it was still early and we've yet to have lunch, I suggested we pop by Strictly Pancakes that's just across the road. They opened for business 2 minutes after we arrived (at 11-ish); we didn't have to wait too long to get a table. A few others were also seen waiting even before the place was opened.

Picture taken from Rongster's mobile uploads.

We settled ourselves comfortably on the second level, and I found myself to really like the laid-back shophouse setting. Placed our orders with the friendly servers and they brought us some pancake accompaniments before our items were ready.

Special butters: rum and raisin (top), garlic herb (bottom)

Orders of savoury pancakes come with a small dish of butter and a vial of maple syrup.

Benedict the Thief ($14) - basically eggs Benedict on pancakes.

Turkey ham is what goes in between the poached eggs and two extra thick pancakes.

Served with some rocket salad in balsamic vinaigrette dressing and Hollandaise sauce on the side.

The pancakes were quite nicely done; fluffy and light... and it was such a joy to cut through them (compared to places that serve eggs Benedict with really tough, crusty toasts).

The eggs were poached well too, with the right amount of yolk oozing out when I used my fork to prod it open. I thought they could be slightly more generous with the seasoning though, but then again, I'm always asking for my food to be saltier.

Snuggle Up ($13) - hotdogs tucked within pancakes and drizzled with maple syrup; served with caramelized onions and a quail's egg on the side.

The hotdog was savoury to my liking, and the onions were quite yummy too.

But at $13, I was really expecting to see more hearty portions.

Atas hotdog also not that expensive right?

 Apples and Cinnamon ($10) - A stack of 3 pancakes with caramelized apples and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

At first impression, the girlies thought that the apples were potatoes hur.
Could taste strong hints of cinnamon in it but I thought that the apples could be further caramelized; till slightly crisp from the char. Not too sure if that's achievable though, I am quite the cooking noob.

No fault to find with the ice-cream that was served by the side, it was really quite good.

Enjoyed my meal even though I'm really supposed to be on a carbo sabbatical. 

Really like the idea of pairing pancakes with savoury items though the prices for the savoury pancakes are not exactly that cheap. Business was brisk as the place was quite packed by the time we were done. Wouldn't mind coming back again if I happen to be in the area.