bye 2011~

since 2011 farewells and 2012 resolutions have started to appear everywhere, i thought i'll do mine too. even though i should be editing my report now. lol.  

so, 2011 has come to an end. spent the first half complaining about work, and the second half complaining about school. lol. if you didn't know, i quit my job in june/july and took up a part-time degree, and time just flew by! i'm gonna potentially graduate in feb, and then it's gonna be back to work money-making! lol.

2011 was pretty quiet i guess. apart from the trip to taiwan in october where i had fun with wall-e SSD, probably nothing interesting or worth mentioning liao. sobs. 

now after reminiscing about the past, it's time for resolutions again!

here's mine for last year:
1. lose even more weight (for the 4th year!) never lose leh. :( but at least never gain also. lol.
2. get out of comfort zone and find a job which i enjoy don't mind doing. er...so far not yet.
3. stop procrastinating on that diving course (and many other courses for that matter). er...studying considered?
4. make SSD bring me on a further-than-genting trip. yes! taiwan! :)
5. be a vegetarian as much as possible. nope. only managed a pescetarian. except taiwan trip. boo.

this year:
1. attempt to lose weight (or at least maintain), into 5th year now!
2. find a job i like/want/would enjoy, and survive it!
3. to visit genting's strawberry/mushroom/bee/fruit farm (that's the farthest i've planned for this year).
4. reduce expectations of others and try not to get pissed off so often. 忍忍忍!
5. catch up with friends? lol.

not very far-fetched right? ah wells. how are you gonna spend your last day of 2011? i'm gonna spend it with...my lays salt and vinegar chips.

DIY nails: simple and sweet

i happened to see (this morning at 2am!) that i have a lot of nail stickers somehow, therefore i decided to do a simple manicure with them. it turned out surprisingly sweet and girly (so not me), so i thought i'd haolian them. LOL.

i know the dots are like, super flawed. i seriously need to get a dotter. but i really like how it appears. it looks better in real life. lol. so tempted to get diamante to bling up my nails this CNY. and also to match my bling bling dress. :D

i keep reminding myself that the degree is for career change and not career advancement, but the starting salary is certainly demoralizing. can i pull through or can i pull through? hais. :(

in too deep

i like the music. pity it's a sad song. :(

sidenote: compare music back then and music now. compare boybands back then and boybands now. *facepalm*

 

seriously, where have all the good music gone to? i'm like, searching for all the old songs nowadays (this and 杜德偉 previously) cos the new songs mostly cannot make it one!! and one thing i super cannot stand is (lol so gonna get haters) the korean boybands that are popping up every so often. omigosh GAY MAX cannnn?!

what happened to the time where good music was appreciated rather than the pretty face behind it? westlife, y u no continue? :(

king's laksa steamboat

just a quick post before i go back to rushing my report.

dinner tonight (yesterday) was at king's laksa steamboat, which mum somehow heard of and wanted to go badly. it's at the row of shophouses near serangoon mrt. (sidenote: parking spaces are super limited!) well i don't usually like to eat steamboat and i think it's kinda far (sembawang to serangoon), but i was somehow impressed by this tiny restaurant. 

it was slight cramped, but air-conditioned, probably on full blast cos i wasn't sweating at all throughout dinner, and no weird smelly smells in the air. certain waitresses are quite rude, but the polite ones are pretty okay (like, they'll serve you with a smile and automatically change your dirty plate).

we chose the signature laksa broth and the herbal soup, both tasted quite nice, although the latter didn't really have much herbal taste. 

 

they only have two kinds of desserts. :(

we ordered, 5 or 6 rounds? lol. overall, i think it's a pretty good alternative to other steamboat places like mushroom pot or 天天火鍋, but i'd still prefer chong pang cos of the bbq.

dinner is now $20.80+. and iced tap water is 50c per glass. tsk.

merry post-christmas!

hope you all had a wonderful one with lots of good food and presents! :)

i, for one, had a somewhat boring one. lol. woke up in the afternoon, had pizza lunch, did my report, and then off to ah ma's house for dinner, which was probably the fun-er part of my day.

had a mini celebration on christmas eve, though it felt like any other paktor day. had lunch at vivo's LJS. my fish and SSD's chicken. super like LJS because of its crumbs but the 2pc fish and fries at $7.20 is expensive lor! SSD's only $4.50. how come mcdees' fish is cheaper? o.o

ok bad time to blog cos i'm craving for fries now. and STILL craving for lays salt & vinegar chips. :(

anyway, we had a good 2 hours to spare before our movie, so we went shopping. must have walked the whole of vivocity. and the crowd was horrendous! and SSD bought a shirt. and i didn't buy anything. boo.

watched alvin and the chipmunks: chipwrecked. 

it was.....kinda disappointing. there isn't much singing in this sequel; more on the adventures on the island. but the chipmunks are super cute!! especially theodore. lols. uncle ian's big bird costume was hilarious too. probably can watch if you want a laugh or two.

walked around somemore while we decided on where to have dinner. and finally made up our mind to......go back to cathay for nihon, which, for once, had no queue during dinner time. lol.

see the difference between the 2 salmon sushis?

their raw salmon is sliced sooo thin; i can just dip it in my cup of hot tea and it's cooked. -_-

also got SSD a chain from couplelab for his ring, cos it's easier to hide and he can bluff other girls he got no girlfriend the ring gives him rashes. lol. mainly because he got me TWO presents this christmas! :D

it's the westlife story that i mentioned some time ago. (i didn't say it because i wanted him to buy hor!) he found it on amazon and it's freaking cheap lor! lol. but i appreciate the effort and trouble he went through. muacks!

and he got me the dvd version, which has a hidden footage inside!

i managed to unlock it (very easy) and it was of westlife recording 'seasons in the sun'. shuai!

and the next present he gave me, was this bling bling guess watch.

love the bag watch! ^^ looks very expensive right?! lol. he actually won it in his company's christmas lucky draw lah, and it's for ladies. SO I TAN DIO!! *happy face* but too loose for me. it's either i eat fat fat so it'll fit, or i lose more weight so that i can remove one more section of the watch. hmmmm.

anyway, pretty glad i didn't really eat much sinful stuff this christmas season. except the pizza. and chicken rice. and the lays salt and vinegar chips that i MUST WILL eat someday soon. last sin was this cheesecake aunt bought. mad expensive, but very rich and nicee. errrr, the strawberry a bit sour though.

alrighty. gonna do report and watch kindaichi now. and maybe get something to eat. lol.

un-boxing my sushi express doll

ok my mind is really tired out from the strategic management report, so i'm gonna take some time off to blog. and since i have nothing to blog about, i shall blog about something really boliao. like un-boxing the sushi express doll i got earlier. :)

 

we had SE for dinner just now, and they have this 'promotion' - $2.50 + 10 plates = 1 doll. well 10 plates was easy for us; we usually eat more than that. lol. and so, we got a doll! (they have 2 types, one red suit, one green suit. SSD said the green one not nice, so i asked if don't have the red one anymore? he said, still get lor. -_-)

so cute right?! ^^ i would have preferred salmon sushi though. (the other one is fish roe.) lols. pardon if the photo looks abit blur; it has gone through a number of resizing (with layers merged) before i found out it was actually a photobucket problem and not the blogger/photoshop problem i had thought it was. -_-

lalala. CNY is next month! (ok christmas is a few days away but CNY means more to me cos more $$$$!) have you bought your new clothes yet? well, after my last attempt at purchasing clothes online (from a blogshop run by a friend), i kinda told myself not to do that anymore. simply because blogshops like to use models that are petite. which i'm not. and dimensions aren't always accurate.

but one day, i happened to chance upon this blogshop that featured this dress which i kind of 一見鍾情-ed. it wasn't very expensive either. most importantly, the model is also 1.7m tall! i got it in a size bigger just in case (only difference is an inch at the bustline) and regretting it now. it's also quite 'puffy', which obviously makes me look fat. -_- still, i totally like that it's purple, bling bling, and low-cut! so me right?! lol.

ok i'm gonna leave the full dress for CNY, but you could easily see which one i got if you drop by their blogshop.

 

 

 

lol that red thingy is the top i got at bugis last saturday. it's supposed to be a toga, but i think i'll wear it as a tube. :(

anyway, this blogshop is pretty efficient (either that or i was just lucky). i made my payment on 16 dec, it got despatched on 17 dec, and i received it today yesterday (20 dec)! fast or what?

ok i think i'll go back to my report. gambade!! 

買東西, 吃東西~!

just a quick post before i finish the last 10% of PM journal and start on my biz plan. 

met 媽 for our christmas shopping session yesterday. well, before that i'd like to take this opportunity to complain, though it didn't really affect me much. lol. anyway, i didn't know that the mrt trains had stalled again that morning, so my journey was like, sembawang → bishan → paya lebar → bugis. pretty troublesome cos the walking distance is longer, and waaayy too crowded. i hate crowds. :( so now, taxis up fares, trains stall, and buses lose their way. public transport is screwed. lol.

back to our shopping session, it was fun. very enjoyable to suan here suan there. haven't done that in ages. and the poor gal had almost 20 gifts to buy! lol. stopped for lunch at sakae. i've actually kinda, sworn off sakae but it happened to be right in front and i was hungry and she agreed, soooo.

the food was slightly better than suki (lesser rice definitely), and they have cha soba on the belt! it didn't taste very good though. and one thing i think suki should learn from them, is the ipad ordering system. easy to use coupled with quick response time, we almost didn't have to stop chatting at all! (yes we can chat with our mouths full. lol.)

but their prices still suck. $2.29 per plate is daylight robbery imho. we both had a green tea and 6 plates each; almost $18/pax! @_@ i hereby announce sushi express is still my favorite sushi place. lol.

continued shopping over at bugis street. i have a love-hate relationship with that place. the crowd is horrible but $10 clothes are wayy too tempting. lol. that's another plus point shopping with 媽. i never have to feel embarrassed to aim for budget clothes, cos she's like me! but of cos, i'm more budget now that i'm not working. oh wells.

finished buying our my shopping just in time. met up with SSD and headed over to buffet town for dinner, courtesy of my two aunts. we were there to celebrate their birthdays! ^^

anyway, when we reached, the queue was massive. even the reservations queue! super 誇張 one lor. but i see why now. the food variety and quality was indeed pretty impressive. the service staff was nice and helpful too. right in the beginning i asked SSD to get me a glass of water, he went and ask the staff for it instead. but you know what? HE BROUGHT IT FOR ME LEH! because we had asked for warm water, he even asked if the temperature was ok. maybe it's not a big deal, but undeniably the service standard has dropped everywhere, so it's nice to see that a good one still exist. :)

and now for the fooood. unfortunately, i was still a little bit full from lunch, so wasn't able to attack full force. lol but i hope what i had was enough to make the money worth. :\

my pretty and colorful salad! 3 kinds of veggies, 3 kinds of pickles, 3 colors of peppers, my favorite honey mustard sauce, croutons, and CHEESE POWDER! i think the first time i ate salad with cheese powder was in taiwan. mad loves! i had two bowls of this.

 

chilled crayfish, LOTS of chilled prawns, chilled scallops, and salmon sashimi! all were super fresh and yummy. ok the crayfish didn't exactly have good comments but i thought it was quite nice what! and i forgot to snap the oysters. apparently there's a long queue cos they shuck it upon request. 

 

my mixed platter - takoyaki, apple salad, lady finger tempura, ebi tempura, eggplant tempura, fried fish, fries, another kind of fish, and baby potato.

wild mushroom soup (left). would be nicer if it was hotter. and just beside it, there's a pasta station where you can choose your pasta + ingredients and they'll cook it for you. should have tried that, but pasta is filling. sad. and the grilled prawns (right)! they look so pretty but quite hard to peel and not as nice as the chilled ones.

 

dessert! green tea and dark chocolate ice cream with mini marshmallows. both are yummy! :)

lastly, my failed attempt at writing 'happy bday' with the chocolate syrup. 

had some other food (which i didn't snap), but i mainly concentrated on the salmon sashimi. so so nice! this is one of the few buffet places where i actually want to drop by again. and thanks for the treat! muacks! ^o^

phew. this took longer than i had expected. next week should be quieter. looking forward to nua chiong my reports at home. gambade!

dinner with ex-colleagues @ swensons

after failing to meet up last week, we finally made it this week! well except 媽 since she was stuck in a meeting and 親愛的 in malaysia. so it was only the three of us today. was only two months since we last met but it felt so long to me lor. missed them so much! lols.

ok food first. although we were like, talking and laughing throughout the entire 2.5 hours and i didn't exactly pay attention to what i was eating. i don't think they did either. (p/s. froggie was being surprisingly cooperative. must be the lighting.)

super duper full. but i honestly cannot remember how my main tastes like. the two girls had like TONS of complaints and i was so engrossed in listening to them (have i mentioned that already?).

it's been half a year since i left but it's just so easy to understand and relate to what they're complaining about. feels like yesterday i was complaining about the same thing. lols. i admit i miss working there a lot. but i don't regret leaving. at least now i know how they, especially the project team, feels about me. 以前當我是草,現在知道我是寶了吧! 如今來叫我回去, 太遲了! ^o^

what? i deserve appreciation okay! i slogged 3 years of my life just for them. lols.

BHB-ing aside, my first christmas gift, from PL. why do everyone like giving me hand/nail creams? my hands look that bad meh? sobs. ok it's the thought that counts. 我明白的...

haven't done any report this couple of days. guess i really have to buck up if i wanna finish that 50% by this week. :(

i live in a world full of people pretending to be something they're not.

have just recently finished some drama series and movies.

curse of the royal harem

the story revolves around an emperor, his mum, his brother, and his 3 ladies. (if you haven't at least started watching the show, you probably won't know what i'm talking about.)

• 道光帝 - i have never seen a more useless emperor. 'nuff said.
• empress dowager - evil bitch. lol. she kills her own grandson and gets the emperor hooked on opium. 
• prince sui - used to be nice and loyal in the early part of the show, but is overcome by revenge and anger in the end. dies together with his former lover, empress no.1.
• empress no.1 - first time watching myolie wu play the baddie! very evil in the beginning, but turns good after she loses her family and son.
• empress no.2 - jessica hsuan plays a baddie too! very smart and resourceful. good at first but turns revengeful after losing her family.
• consort ching - from maid to consort. she was the one who fed opium to the emperor.

i don't remember watching any other shows in which so many characters  develop differently throughout the show. pretty interesting to watch, although you might be like me, cursing the emperor everytime he screws things up. :)

twilight saga: breaking dawn

 

pretty much below expectations, unfortunately. :(

was looking forward to the wedding scene, but sooo disappointed! the dress was wayy too simple in front, although the back was nice. what's the point of such a big hoo-ha over it? the wedding wasn't really grand as well. they should have followed what was in the book. 

'sex scenes' were PG, though the topic of it came up pretty much all the time. not in a dirty way i suppose, probably because everyone's concerned that edward having sex with bella while she's still human could possibly kill her.

it looks to me that part one of the movie combined parts one and two from the book. i think the show focused too much on bella and edward, they kinda left out jacob. he should have more scenes. but of cos, it could probably be because the version i watched was horribly dark and blur, so i fast-forwarded any parts that were black. lols.

birth scene wasn't that gruesome as i had expected, though the venom (spreading through bella's body) scene was cool. never thought it'll be shown this way.

and the thing i hate most about this movie? it ends right when bella opens her red eyes. I HATE CLIFFHANGERS!! ok not exactly cliffhanger cos i know what happens after that. but still, it's a different thing watching the story unfold as a movie. i really wanna see how they're gonna show bella's power shield. and the last battle! so exciting! breaking dawn, why you break into two parts?! :(

the smurfs

how could i have missed this movie?! :)

it's about how this few smurfs got lost in new york while trying to escape an evil wizard trying to extract their smurf essence  to become more powerful. (by the way i thought the wizard's name was gaga-man, it turned out to be gargamel.)

everything's just so cute and silly and comical and funny. a light, heartwarming movie to watch. :)

when heaven burns

this one is still in process. i had read the brief plot summary and was interested, though the beginning was really boring and i almost gave up.

it's about these 4 young bandmates who went on a mountain trip which ended up with 3 of them killing and eating the other one for survival. they told his girlfriend it was an accident and have since drifted apart. 18 years later, they reconcile, although one of them apparently lost his memory of what happened up on the mountain.

i'm up to episode 14 (out of 30) now, and things are getting interesting cos he finally regained his memory and according to the plot, the remains are going to be found. so, yeah.

if you're gonna watch it, do pay more attention, cos the show alternates between past and present very often, so you might get confused with the people and stuff. i know i did. lols.

... ...

the next movie i'm gonna download watch is almost famous. oh and puss in boots! meow.

why does he...

...have to look so good in this video? :(

so so so good in black! *hyperventilates* lol.

[sponsored review] lucido-l hair make supplement

not exactly a sponsored review cos i had to collect it myself, BUT, they (nuffnang) gave a retail-sized bottle of this thing and i had to drop by their office anyway, so...considered sponsored gua? :|

this supplement apparently provides long lasting moisturizing treatment by restoring your hair's natural moisture retaining system. and it's due to this CMC thingy.

ok i admit i just copied everything from the website. lol. there's two types - one for straight hair (pink bottle) and one for permed hair (orange bottle). watsons is selling it at around $16 i think.

my take:  honestly, i don't really care to make extra effort to buy supplements for my hair. so when i learnt it was self-collection, i was kinda reluctant. (cos i thought is those sachet samples where they mail to your house.) but i'm glad i collected it!

since my hair is rebonded and rebonded hair usually looks smooth, there was really minimal before-and-after effects. i guess if you examine it very carefully, you can still tell the difference. probably will be more obvious after long-term usage. and it's really non-sticky/non-oily as promised. i likes! bottle is cute too. :)

but the best part? it smells soooooo good! fresh, fruity, floral...i don't know how to describe. just...good! great for school days where i don't like to wear perfume. i'll have to see how long this bottle can last me, and if it's worth it, i'll probably get it next time as a 'hair perfume'. ^_^

環島追追追!

first stop: boon lay

went for my free trial facial at jurong point's new york skin solutions. i know i know, lots of negative reviews. but since it was free and worth $300+, why not? lol.

so it started off with a skin analysis, which was actually my main reason for going. wasn't expecting good skin, but definitely not expecting it to be this bad. i think in a way, what she said was true. doctors only help to clear whatever they see on the surface. my previous dermatologists never use the skin scanner thingy so i always thought my skin was recovering. looks like i still have a lot to do. oh and she said i have combination skin, whereas 8-11 clinic doc told me i have oily. so how? =(

anyway, the treatment started off with double cleansing, then some cooling mask, and then pore extraction. which was like super duper @*&#)% painful!! i kept thinking "aren't you not supposed to squeeze your pimples? so why are you poking my face?" but then i recalled SSD's mum was a beautician, and she helped SSD poke his pimples too. so i 忍 lor.

after that, she applied a thick layer of collagen thingy and did some eye massage, which wasn't exactly a good idea cos i was wearing contacts. the final part of the treatment was firstly this thin layer of mask (which stung by the way), then a sheet of gauze, and lastly a thick layer of hardening mask. wasn't really comfortable because it went all the way to the top of my shoulders, and as the mask hardened, it became too heavy for my throat. so i cannot swallow. lol.

results: pores (especially my nose) were visibly cleaner and tighter, although the pore extraction left many red bits all over my face, making me look like i had a horrible breakout. she said it'll go off, so...cross fingers! eyes look a tiny bit brighter too. lol. 

service: they have a reputation for being very pushy but i think this consultant was okay. after all i had made it clear i was a student and my main reason was just for the skin analysis. she didn't sell to me during the treatment too. (p/s. this also considered service i guess. they make you change into their thin robe and blast the aircon. way too cold!! was totally shivering.)

i'll just wait a few days to see how my skin looks, and if it looks better, maybe i'll consider signing them up in future if i got too much money and don't know how to spend. 

second stop: farrer park

in case you haven't been following me on twitter (probably not i guess):

certainly wasn't expecting to get it noting the countless number of people retweeting it. and since i also got a sample from nuffnang (which i had to collect personally), i popped over to their office next. (sidenote: their office is super cosy and homely and the people dress so casually. /major envy.)

third stop: city hall

went to collect somemore stuff, and then it's dinner! i kept telling myself i want to eat bento but when i opened my mouth, i ordered garlic squid instead. oh wells. 

fourth stop: sembawang

what is there at sembawang? home. and what is at home? reports. *&#^% REPORTS!! ok maybe my fault for procrastinating a little until now i only have 1 month to finish 7 reports. @_@

one last bit before i return to the arms of reports. -_-'''

some time ago i attended SSD's brother's housewarming 'party'. since it was obligatory, i could only look forward to playing with their 2 dogs. super lucky doggies cos they're toys and one can only imagine how a maisonette must look like to them. probably like how the forbidden palace must look like to us. =P

okay i exaggerate. my point is, they're so cute! haha no link right?!

 

i think they're supposed to be called kopi and tehsi. and i finally know how to differentiate them! lol. we were sitting in the living room when tehsi started walking all around with that super cute guilty look on her face (like, head down but big round eyes looking up). and kopi was like, dozing off on SSD's lap during the massage session. his ears are over-sized and stick out more. soooo adorable!