The Banquet

Caught the show today with Law and GY at GV Bishan after work. After watching the movie, I gotta say that it's overhyped and under expectations. The swordplay was rather good though as well as the song sung by zhou xun. Dun really know the name of the song though..

Zhang Ziyi's acting was rather lacklustre and Daniel Wu tries to play it cool in the show. Ge You excelled at being a nasty emperor and a "hum sup lou" a.k.a. old pervert.. But the best was Zhou Xun! She took on her role rather well as a member of the court in love with the prince (Daniel Wu) and her voice is just so mesmerizing... *swoonz*

Morale of the story after watching the Banquet: To kill off people as an emperor, DO NOT waste time having silly, expensive banquets but rather issue an imperial edict to kill off everyone who's trying to topple you as well as their entire 9 generations at one go...

On another note, another show to watch would be The Departed, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. Weird name for a show but it's the American version of the popular cult movie, Infernal Affairs with Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Andy Lau! Caught the movie trailer before the Banquet started and as usual, the trailer was full of guns ablazing and spy-spy thingy.. Too bad never show the famous rooftop scene between the 2 main leads..

That's all for now! Will add more reviews of shows if I get a chance to catch them on the big screen!

A very busy day!

Super packed Saturday for me! Work in the morning till 1230, then rushed home to get my gown and head out to meet A07/08 ppl for photo shoot @ Esplanade. Only got 5 of us (Tf, Jw, Ky, Wy and me) but good enough! The weather remained fine enough for us to take photos despite threatening to rain since afternoon. Heng ah! Lotsa ppl staring at us though, especially tourists, wondering what 5 of us doing at Esplanade and Merlion park in weird gowns.. Hyak hyak..

Here's some of what we took today!








After which we had an early dinner at Kyo-nichi Ramen at Marina Square, from Tf's recommendation. Was a bit dubious at first of unknown Ramen restaurants, but everything changed when I sampled the first taste of the soup which is the most important part of the ramen dish! Nice wholesome tonkotsu (pork bone) flavour in the broth which isn't too salty and leaves a sweet aftertaste. In simpler terms, lagi shiok! Also ordered a side dish that came with the set. Shishamo Tempura! Love it so much when I ate it in Japan! Tf din want to try cos of the head that you can see from the pic below... Lol! But Wy and Ky said not bad! Yeah!




After ramen, went on down to Clarke Quay to meet my usual YCK fellow volunteers for outing at Settlers! Yeah! First time for lotsa ppl I guess. Hoped to make it a success. Initially I though like only 10+ of us going but in the end I had 22+ of us! One whole super big noisy bunch of people but we couldn't care less! We split up into 2 separate groups and my group played Guesstures (a charade game), Halli Galli and Jungle Speed (reaction games) and Snorta (memory game) which I think most of the group liked a lot! Hehe. Loads of fun but we had to go off at 11 cos there was another group of ppl waiting to take over our table.. Sianz... Also wanted to take group photo of 1st Settlers outing for YCK but was too caught up in the games to remember taking out my camera! Sianz X 2 or was it sianz 1/2?

But oh well, there's always next time right, guys? Already planning the next one liaoz... Keke..

Anyway, Liverpool won 3-0 at Anfield against the Spurs! Woot!

Good night to all and see ya guys (A07/08 and YCK ppl) soon!

Of Japanese and American

Had dinner with Elaine and Yunyun today at Dining @ Sakae in Atrium @ Orchard. Kinda different from the typical Sakae Sushi outlets we see around. More sophisticated dishes in the menu and not much variety of nigiri sushi and side orders. Ordered ochazuke for them to try, something I had in Hiroshima 2 years back. It's a dish where you pour tea into a bowl filled with rice and other types of food, in this case silverfish. Take a look below...


The tea blends with the rice to create a "soup" which tastes different from the original tea! Kinda cool huh? The ambience was pretty nice but the service was not so good. Cos they took quite a long time to deliver those we had ordered from the monitor...

Anyway, after that we decided to go to PS for some dessert at Cafe Cartel. Half price for cakes after 9pm! Bet some of ya din know that! :P

Yunyun and I had a slice of New York Cheesecake each while Elaine got a cappucino. Said cheesecake was sinful but I couldn't care less.. Haha! But the cappucino came in a nice big cup and I couldn't resist taking a photo of it before Elaine got to the coffee. Hee...

Absolutely sinful...


Elaine's cappucino, cup looks nice huh?

It was nice meeting up with Elaine, the last time I saw her being her Convocation back in July.. We arranged to have dinner sometime at the French Stall somewhere off Serangoon, which is remarkably popular. Almost everyone I spoke to about knew about the place! Hopefully can sample some of the nice dishes there soon!

Catching up with friends

Met up with Jw and Tf today for dinner near Sunshine Plaza, after which we went to our usual Gundam shop to get stuff. Actually only I bought stuff.. Trying to psycho Jw to get MG Gundam Wing Custom Zero but he wouldn't budge.. I might get it though cos it's now on sale..

Aniwae, we went to Plaza Sing later to try to find book cover for Jw's book but realised that bookshops like Times only sell BOOKS and nothing else... Haha! Ended up at Starbucks drinking coffee. I tried the new coffee there, the Pumpkin Spice Frappucino Blended Coffee!


Nice at the start with the pumpkin flavour coming in at the aftertaste. Jw also commented that it was nice but Tf was so against pumpkin.. I wonder y... Haha!


It's always great to chill out with friends over a cuppa of coffee (or more) and chat about things past and present... Hope to get more ppl though.. especially tuition boy... Hyak hyak!

Infinite Justice Gundam

Thanks to Mineyoshi, my japanese friend for buying this and Legend Gundam for me! This is the fastest I've used to finish a Gundam, possibly due to experience from the previous 2 ones.(Strike Freedom and Destiny) Only in 3 nights' time! Going to start on Legend soon I guess!

Parting of friends...

My 2 japanese friends, Mineyoshi and Naoki stayed at my place from the 12th to 14th this past week. It was quite fun to have them at my place where I can get to chat with them longer, although at the expense of my sleep. Haha! Thanks to Peiyuan, Huiyun and Fengrong for taking them out on my behalf during the day when I'm working, if not I very cham sia.. Weird enuff, they have became my "sisters" and I became their "jie jie" or elder sis. -_- Even Naoki called me jie jie jokingly.. Haha

Celebrated Mid-Autumn festival with them by eating mooncakes with jasmine tea, and carrying lanterns around the neighbourhood! Can still remember the times when I wore my pyjamas and carrying my latern ard my block when I was young...


Brought them to Settlers' Cafe as well and I did have a hard time explaining the rules in Japanese, but in the end everything worked out well and they had a smashing time that night! I might consider buying their favourite game they liked that night and send to Japan.. Hmm..

So I sent them off at Changi on Thursday night and suddenly a photo-taking frenzy overtook us all. Started taking group photos and one to one photos with everybody else. I swear some ppl at Changi tot we were nuts! Will try to upload some nice photos once I receive them, yah?

Oh well, I promised to visit them soon in Japan sometime September next year, so I gotta start earning and saving money now!

お久しぶり！(Long time no see!)

2nd day for work for me. Still on course but we got down to more hands on stuff, using the online network and stuff. Quite fun actually, din really feel tired thanks to my instructor making it bearable for us! :)

After that I went to watch AFC U-17 Quarter-finals match between Japan and Iran. Reached there about 6 plus so ended up watching from second half onwards. Japan had led 1-0 into the game after a goal somewhere after 10 mins according to my Japanese friend. However, Iran came back strong in the second half to equalise, sending the Iranian fans into a frenzy! Did I mention that one Iranian medical guy was sent off because he stepped onto the field to celebrate Iran's equaliser? And the funny thing is that guy kept coming back up onto the field to attend to the goalkeeper when the latter's down, much to the jeers and boos from the Japanese fans!



The score remained at extra time and proceeded into penalty kicks! Japan started first and Iran followed next. Quite a nail biting one because whenever Japan scored, Iran did too, and when Japan failed to convert, Iran would do so likewise in the same frame as well! Continued to the 11th penalty when Japan finally scored and Iran missed the spot kick!

*Frenzy outbreak among the Japanese fans ensues*



After that we (my japanese friend, 2 other gals and me) had dinner at Lavender Food Square and we ordered way too much food... check out the photos coming soon to see what I mean. Haha... Recommended my Japanese friend to try turtle soup and frog legs' porridge but he din dare to try them I think.. Think about it, I also dun dare to try turtle soup sia...

Met up with another Japanese friend and 2 other SG friends at Liquid Kitchen and started a 飲み会 (drinking party). I only ordered a Shirley Temple and had to leave early cos of work tml...


Penning off now! Will try to keep updating this blog now and then!

Japanese Animation Exhibition!

Went to play pool with GY at about 3 on Sunday, after which we met up with Law to go down to NAFA to check out the Japanese Animation Exhibition. Quite ok actually, could get to see pics of anime old and new, tempting me to check out some of the new ones I noted down mentally. Here's some of the pics I've taken. Have a look!







Had dinner at a nearby prata house and GY treated us! Haha. Been pestering him about his "first-pay" treat since he started work. Haha! Thanks GY for the nice prata!



That's it for now. Kinda weird posting this blog about Sunday on a Monday.. Oh well, at least I quickly blogged my Sunday before it's long forgotten!

Fruitful day at YCK and super nice ice cream!

Typical saturday for me. Went down to YCK Gardens MINDS school for session. Great to see the volunteers and kids. Sometimes I call them kids, sometimes I call them trainees, depending on situation bah... Anyway, i'm teaching my kid how to count money these past few weeks. Thanks to Huixian for teaching me how to teach my kid how to count money! Not that easy leh.. My kid managed to understand some points that I was trying to teach him and I was VERY happy!

And we celebrated Glady's and Shui shan's bdae! Kids really love birthdays! All the kids milling around the cake, waiting to blow out the candles..


Shui shan's bdae cake...


and Glady's bdae cake!


Gladys cutting cake with her volunteers

Hehe.. Session ended about 5 and we all went to one of our regular haunts, Bishan Kim San Leng coffeshop, to eat dinner. It was quite unbelievable today as we had 6 cars to drive almost everybody from YCK to Bishan! Usually about 2-3 cars, then the others gotta take public transport already... Really save a lot of time for travelling for dinner sia.. Thanks guys!

After that we went to Haagen Dazs for dessert! Wah.. 2 sinful obsessions in 2 days.. Woot!


This had Mango Sorbet, Macadamia Nut and Summer Berries and Cream with strawberry sauce and rainbow sprinkles!

This had Belgian Chocolate with Midnight Cookies and Cream and Chocolate Chocolate Chip (Yes no mistakes about the name!) We also ordered strawberries(quite a lot!) and mandarin oranges for toppings as well. The little container on the right was the strawberry sauce.

Kinda nice to hang out with volunteer friends every saturday and chatting all the way thru the night. Can't wait for next session! :)

First day of work at IRAS

Hmm.. I reached IRAS pretty early, 15 mins way before time and hung around the meeting place the HR lady mentioned to me over the phone, which I realised later that there were also other ppl hanging around as well! I was thinking, "Wah, so many ppl get temp job ah..."

Only during the orientation session, that i found out that there were 15 of us in all, joining the same dept and most of them were from polys, getting a vacation job. Only me and another guy (who happened to be my friend's bf! Din know him before that!) were the only uni grads.

Thus both of us were labelled as "big brothers" in our little cohort. Haha! So today was training about filing of tax return and stuff.. And heard that training is going to last for about 2-3 more days.. Imagine a lecture from 8.30-5 with 1 hr break in between. But the instructor was nice enough to make the lesson less boring, so not too bad :) I can't say what I've learnt exactly if yes, then I have to kill you... seriously...

After the course, I met up with Jacelin for dinner in town and we had Sakae Sushi followed by some shopping.

A sample of our feast!


Me and Jac at Sakae Sushi!

Jac had some problems sending MMS with her hp, so we hopped on down to Hello! Shop at Taka to check it. Ended taking photos like this to try to send MMS to each other. Duh...



After which we had mudpie at Big O for some dessert! Yummy! The mudpie was called O.. I ate it again! Marshmallow sandwiched by strawberry icecream (top layer) and mango ice cream (bottom layer) with an Oreo crust! Heavenly, i tell you!


Mudpie went from this...


to this in seconds!

Jac and I spent some time taking photos of our mudpie before we decided to tuck in. Think the other patrons there thought we might be nuts. Haha!

Sometimes it's nice to meet someone for dinner and just chat. Edgar Allan Poe said before that "eating with someone is like sharing your soul". That's quite true for me. I dun mind group dinners but it's difficult to talk to everybody over the table, you just chat with those beside you instead... It all depends on the company yah?

It's been a long day and tml's YCK session again! Can't wait to see everybody, trainees and volunteers alike! :)

A cuppa of coffee and an anticipation of days to come

Today was a good day! Met Kojima-sensei for coffee today at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf! She taught me when I was learning Japanese 3 in NUS then. Her lessons were never boring and we all usually couldn't wait to attend her lessons every Monday then. It's been a while since I met up with her, partly because she couldn't make it for the dinner gathering I organised for Japanese 4 senseis and students. But man, was i glad to meet up with her today!

We chatted for like 1 hr 45 mins about lotsa stuff spanning from jobs to relationships (she gives quite good advice!) to about Japanese and Singaporeans alike. Also reminiscenced about the Japanese lessons I took since Year 3. Good times those were. A break from boring ol' Engin stuff..

On another note, I can't wait to start work tml at IRAS! I've been told it's a boring, mundane job but this is my highest earning job so far! About 1.1 K a month? But I'm hoping to get a perm job soon so that I can repay my parents the debts sia... Feeling that my life's going to take a big change when I start working from 8.30 - 6 on weekdays.. No more slacking and waking up at 11 plus every morning!

That reminds me, I gotta sleep early tonight, cos gotta start waking up at 7 every weekday now..

More updates to come about my job soon!

The Devil does wear Prada!

Nothing really much today, went to Sembawang community library to get my hands on the 3rd book of the Dreamers called "The Crystal Gorge" by David and Leigh Eddings. It's quite a good read for fantasy lovers. My current reads are Eddings and James Patterson. They just know how to keep you up awake in the wee hours of the morning with their work...

Anyway, had dinner with GY and Law, and went to catch The Devil Wears Prada! It's quite a nice show. Din really feel like watching a show like that at first but felt that I should give it a try. Although it's a comedy, but then there's one underlying moral of the whole story. That is..

Not to lose sight of your values and ideals, do not forget about your family and frens when you're high up there!

Something I'll keep in mind when I actually get into working society..

Tml's going to be a nice day! Meeting Kojima-sensei for tea in town! Can't wait to catch up with her!

Job-hunting

Just had my interview this morning at Renesas Technology down at Keppel Bay Tower beside Harbourfront Centre. Job in particular was R & D Engineer.. Just wanted to go there and take a look and ask more about the job when I got a test paper in my face asking me about Win32 programming and MFC.. LOL.

The interviewer was nice enuff to say that they're looking for people who are more software-inclined. Haha. But the nice chap did tell me more about the job but making me lose interest liaoz.. Hardcore programming job = not my type of job. But then again, I'm kinda desperate for a job now..

Went back home and received a call from IRAS about a temp job I've applied last week! Yeah! Finally starting a mundane temp job as frontline ppl but better than staying at home and rotting...

Botanic Gardens Visit!

Finally my second post! Was bz uploading the pics to my yahoogroups for my cca ppl to take a look.. Anyway, went with my fellow YCK-ians and trainees to the Botanic Gardens on Saturday! Haven't really been there for a long time already..

For people who have ABSOLUTELY no idea what YCK is, it's called Yio Chu Kang Gardens MINDS (Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore) School, where I volunteer to teach intellectually-disabled children skills and for them to have fun as well! We take them for an outing once a month and this month is to the gardens!

The weather was great except that it threatened to rain at some point of time. Lotsa food provided by the aunties who enjoyed the nice rest while the children enjoyed themselves with activities planned by us.

We were kinda near the Swan lake so I decided to hop on down to take a look and snap some shots as well too. In fact I took too many shots! :P People were throwing lotsa bread and lettuce for the swans to eat but the hungry fish and turtles took most of the chow instead.. The swans weren't really hungry anyway... But I managed to get up close to one of them without being bitten. Haha!

Of course the kids had lotsa fun too! With food and games and music, which kid wouldn't enjoy? :)

But too bad we had to leave at about 4.30pm that day.. The kids are such darlings to me. I miss them already... Their smiles always bring warmth to my heart everytime... Can't wait to see them next Sat!