I just love their presence

I'm back here again for boardgamings! It seems like this is one of my frequent hangouts but in actual fact, that day was ONLY my second visit to decoders' cafe. Ever since i was introduced to decoders' cafe, i've never thought of going back to minds cafe anymore. Most importantly is mainly because of this big factor here: Convenience. Decoders cafe is so much nearer for we people staying around the west area. Convenience matters most to me.

Accompanied with another group of companions, my lovely sisters, we made a trip down to decoders' cafe back on the 17th June. It's been quite some while since the four sisters gathered together for an outing. Back then during cca days, we could almost see one another every single day due to the hectic training. With them around, there's bound to be fun, laughters and good memories left deeply etched behind... The four drama queens...
"HAPPY HOUR", daily which costs only 6 bucks for non-members with an additional of 10% off total bill for NTU, NUS, SP, NP students so long as you bring along your matriculation card. That's great deal, isn't it? What's more to add on to it is you also get 25% off the ala cartes on weekdays. Where on earth can you ever find such good deal for boardgamings?!? i can't resist the temptation not to visit it the third time some other days... We played a variety of games like taboo (TOP FAVOURITE), cluedo, saboteur etc.. Cluedo and Saboteur are more of the thinking games where you will have to crack your brain and come up with strategies to counter-attack your players in order to emerge as the overall winner. Taboo is more like a word-guessing game. we partnered each other and there's 2 different teams each time. Initially, we kept on guessing correctly only 8 cards. As such, our ultimate goal for this taboo game was to beat this score. we managed to, with kerong and sok(team) achieving a record as high as guessing correctly a total of 13 cards! Congrats girls!

Me and kerong also ordered this tiramisu waffle served with maple syrup for a light lunch delight. Though i couldn't really taste any tiramisu inside, but this waffle is quite tasty with a sweet crispy crust. Here's some random, candid, funny shots captured after our happy hour at decoders cafe. There's more to it but i'm only uploading few of them up here! (The rest are already on facebook!)

i just love hanging out with my drama peeps. we share strong friendship bonds even till date despite having left the drama society for quite some while... There's so much to catch up with one another every outing and time is always not enough! No doubt happy moments are transient and time flies especially fast during this period! At least, those moments will be deeply etched in your mind after each and every fun-filled day spent. yeah, and i'm sure it will always be there. Love you all, sisters:D

That's for now.

J.E.S.H

16th June 2010, a day where j.e.s.h is out to enjoy a whole day of fun-filled activities, bringing back good memories with us...With tcc lunch promotion hot deals as well as kbox irresistible offers!!! How can you ever resist all these temptations?!?:D Let us once again relish those wonderful, memorable moments...

If only time could freeze at this moment...

That's for now.

(P.S. i just came to realize the joy in the process of making a video. At least in this entry, i managed to include most of the photos which were captured on the day itself into my self-edited video. Pictures speak a thousand words, but i think videos do even more. Love them to bits.)

Dare to Lead; Dare to Overcome; I'm an Adventurer!


Are you an adventurer? Are you brave enough to take the risk? That's the classroom in the wild over at Jurong bird Park which kept me busy and weared out during the two days' camp on the 14th and 15th of June last week. Last year, i did attend this classroom in the wild event but in comparison with this year's one, it's much more happening during the whole camp with a change of new camp site. There's definitely much more to explore over at Jurong Bird Park rather than just around the woodlands vicinity where we held our classroom in the wild the previous year. This year was special too, we had more teacher helpers with us and more importantly, my bestie(sok) joined me for this stayover night camp as well. As the saying goes, the more the merrier...
(More of the fun will be elaborated as you read on.)

This is the aviary which we visited during day two. Have you ever tried feeding the birds before? That was a brand new experience for me. The aviary is located at Lory Loft in Jurong Bird Park and we took a short tram ride over to this station during day two. You can easily come into close contact with many colourful birds flying around in this open area and sometimes even landing on your shoulder. we are supposed to feed them with this liquid food and the birds are fighting over them. With their sharp screeching chirpy sounds which would sometimes cause slight discomfort in your ears...

"BEHIND THE SCENES"

So what exactly does it mean by "Behind the scenes"?!?

In short, we were actually given the privilege to tour not only around jurong bird park, but also the places which are in the restricted zones. Usually if one purchases a ticket to visit jurong bird park, he/she will be prohibited to enter the restricted zone. For us, we were allowed to visit places in jurong bird park like the clinic area (a place where vets operate on the birds), weaning area as well as the place where the nanny will have to take special care of the new-born young birds.
As seen in the above photos,
1: This is the weaning area where different species of birds are kept in the same area so that they can mix around and get along with other species. We were told by this bird park camp coordinator, Ivan, that birds are sometimes kept not just only to their own species; they get to mix around with other species as well.

2: New-born young birds need to be kept in this incubator, designed with special temperature for they can't suit to the outside room temperature. Apart from that, the nanny will have to feed them every 2 hrs for they will always go hungry during this stage.

3: Samples of eggs. One of which is the ostrich egg, coated with colour pigment. For your information, these eggs can hold up to a man's weight (as heavy as 80kg) largely due to their hard egg shell.

4: This is the baby parrot (not fully developed), kept in the incubator and taken with special care by the nanny.

5: This one that you see here in picture 5 is a once-alive penguin!

The Lodge on Flamingo Lake

A nice scenic view of the flamingos

We were well-fed during the 2 days' camp. Breakfast, lunch, dinner were all buffet style. As compared to last year's classroom in the wild where we were treated to sakura buffet, this year's one was somewhat on par despite not sakura. I especially love this american breakfast during day two. They're all my favourites. Delectable morning delights along with a cup of hot milo to start your day with. we were also told to eat our fill for later on during afternoon, it would be exhausting especially for the teachers during the treasure hunt game. we're gonna' run and sweat like hell!

Thank god i was actually allocated to a group of young kids (around the age of 5-6) and they will not be involved in the game. i just took them for a tram ride to tour around jurong bird park. That's my assigned task, tsktsk...

This video was taken as i was touring around jurong bird park in the tram ride with those kids. The whole tram ride took about 10-15 minutes for us to comb through the entire jurong bird park. Nice captivating scenery aong the way through the glass panel.

Apart from the tram ride, we also went for two different timeslots of the birds of the prey show on respective days. One of the teacher helpers was selected to help out during the show. i managed to film down a short video on it. Here it is.

(Sit back and enjoy for the next few seconds.)

i belonged to this clan, nightingale. So i was one of the nightingale facilitators during the camp. my friend belonged to the kingfisher clan initially, but in the end she was swopped over to join me in our nightingale clan. As a clan, we have our own cheers, one of which is the most common one(Cheer #1) which i believe most of your must have heard before. This is how it goes:

Cheer #1

Everywhere we go (Teachers)

Everywhere we go (Students)

People want to know (Teachers)

People want to know (Students)

Who we are? (Teachers)

Who we are? (Students)

We are the nightingale! (Teachers)

We are the nightingale! (Students)

Mighty Mighty Nightingale! (Teachers)

Mighty Mighty Nightingale! (Students)

Ee-ya-ee-ya-oo! (ALL)

Cheer #2

Sha-ka-la-ka Pi-ya Pi-ya

Waka Waka Yay, yay.

Gooooo Nightingale!!!

Sounds familiar? The usual cheers and shoutings that one would use during camp.

Nightingale managed to emerge as the top two winners of the treasure hunt game during day two. They claimed the victory and glory for our clan. Three cheers and three cheers and three cheers for nightingale; hip hip hooray X 3!!!

Overall, the 2D/1N adventure camp was memorable. i kinda' miss it till date. Much more happening than last year's classroom in the wild for this time round was an outdoor stayover-night camp at Jurong bird park. It has been decades ever since i last visited jurong bird park. Around the age of nine, i guess so. That was many years back. i'm thankful that i was given the opportunity to revisit the whole bird park once again. The serenity of nature

Awesome!:)

A New Beginning11th of June 2010, this special day is a joyous occasion which my family is celebrating for its my cousin's big day. It has been a long wait for the arrival of this day, especially for the old folks. My second eldest cousin is the first one to get married from my mum's side. Though i've been to wedding dinners a couple of times from my dad's side, however, this 11th of june's cousin wedding holds important significance to our family for this is the first time we are holding such a grand event in our family. i was excitedly anticipating upon the arrival of june 11th then.

Early in the morning even before sun rise, we woke up to wash up and get prepared to set off to my cousin's house for the wedding traditional custom, which they called it the tea ceremony. That was my first time attending it. Back in the past, i only went for the wedding dinner during the night instead of tagging along with my parents to tea ceremony. This time round, it's different. That's with my cousin and her ready-to-be husband. Nicely dressed in wedding gown and suit respectively, along with my cousin's "sisters" who were behind them...

Having to wake up at dawn and to stay perk up throughout from morning all the way till night is seriously deadbeat. We were all overcomed by fatigue by the time the whole wedding ceremony ended. But it was great experience! i had loads of fun with my family:D Multiple photos were snapped as keepsake. i love most of the photos captured with my digital camera that day... Above are some photos which we took in the lobby before proceeding right into the restaurant for the wedding ceremony. It was a good take, with my family, my cousins and relatives. Supposedly, i should be driving my family to this venue, Holiday Inn, to attend the ceremony. However in the end, it was once again another failed attempt. i didn't rent or borrow any car either. Dad said it wasn't worth it to just rent a car and drive there during the night for the charges are high and you would have to waste another day on saturday for we couldn't possibly return it on that friday itself when the whole wedding ceremony will end as late as 10plus night time. There goes it... Here's one of the photo which brother took for me right outside the entrance of another chinese restaurant. They were located on the same floor. i like this flower pot. Nice pink petals. For friends who know me well, you guys should know that black is one of my favourite colours. It simply goes well with any colour except for the really dark ones.

Next up, here's a video which i've filmed during my cousin's wedding. Her husband looks kinda' funny when trying to pop out the cork of the champagne. i was given the privilege to sit right in front at the red table. This was my first ever opportunity to experience that. How cool! As a result, i also ended up standing right in front of him when he was doing that action and i tried to stay a distance away for fear that the cork might just hit straight right into my face! (*laughs*)

i was saved though...it didn't hit me!

Before ending my entry here, i would like to once again express my heartfelt wishes to this lovey-dovey couple, wishing them a blissful marriage. Your journey begins here and there's a long way ahead of your...

(P.S. This entry is supposedly to be posted up on my blog quite some time ago and i've to apologize for the delay 'cause i was especially busy during this whole period with adventure camp and outings. i'm finally able to settle down now and take a breather off my hectic schedule. And there's seriously few other blog entries lagging behind!)

i just need a bit more time... Till date, i'm enjoying every moment of life and i will continue to.

That's for now. God Bless, Love my family and friends:D

The Foursome

Weekends night are always meant for my foursome clique. Our weekly basis meet-up on a saturday evening has been implemented ever since last year. Till date, we still keep to our promise. i always love their companions. We can chat almost everything under the sun. Our common goal, our studies, the novelty and variation that we are pursuing in life. We love to indulge in delectable delights and entertainment. We're always out to source for better ambience places for food(sounding as though food ambassadors here, tsktsk...) as well as entertainment, thrill and fun in this small little dot on the map. i do hope that one day, we can leave singapore for another country out there, travelling overseas with one another. So long as it's a overseas trip together, i don't mind the place that we're heading to. More importantly is each and everyone's presence that i'm more concern with.

During last saturday's evening, wk and joyce met up with me and sok at causeway point for the usual dinner hang-out. Initial ajisen plan was changed to cafe gelare for waffle ice-cream. We shared two different types of flavours of waffles. One of which will be a liking for fruit lover and another one is a more common type of chocolatey waffle served with maple syrup and your choice of ice-cream. i have never been to cafe gelare for waffle ice-cream before, not even once. Hence, i left the choice to them, so long as its not cinnamon flavour! You know, i just hate cinnamon to the core. (*laughs*)

And as shown below, these are the two flavours of waffles that we chose.

Freshly baked frutti tutti waffle served with chocolate cookie dough ice-cream, chocolate syrup and whipped cream.

Freshly baked chocolatey waffle served with wild strawberry ice-cream, maple syrup and whipped cream.

i love this wild strawberry flavour ice-cream. Nice recommendation from wk. It tastes a bit sour and sweet at the same time! Yummy. The ice-cream there tastes like yogurt too. Simply Thumbs Up.

Good evening times were spent. Though its only a few hours of meet-up, but i'm glad we leave some good memories behind once again. Photo-taking is definitely a usual routine every outing for they are meant for keepsake. i love you guys♥. We've also made plans for the next outing, a much more happening one this time round for its going to be a whole day event.

Anticipating the arrival of that day...

That's for now...

Sing along with the lyricsk session is back on that friday. It has been quite some while since i last went out with jiaqi 'cause she was busy with work for the past few months after her graduation from poly. Finally, i got to meet her up last friday for a k-session over at Safra Country Club. Kbox is currently still having this $8 nett promotion per pax in celebration of their 8th year anniversary. Promotion will be valid till mid-october. Meanwhile, you can just sing as much as you want given this cheap offer during the promotion period!!! Irresistable offer!

Though it's stated there that you get to sing from 2pm to 7pm, however, this is subject to the availability of the rooms depending on the number of reservations for the day. Last friday, we only got to sing from 2pm to 5pm. It was not that bad though for there were only the two of us and each one of us held on to one mike. Songs after songs. Mixture of english and chinese songs were sang. This was the first time that i challenged a whole straight row of english songs towards the end. With Miley Cyrus's "When I Look At You", "The Climb", "Party In The U.S.A", Justin Bieber's "Baby", "Michael Jackson's "Heal The World", Salvage Garden's "Truely Madly Deeply", Taylor Swift's "Love Story" as well as Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and "Poker Face". That should be all if i didn't remember wrongly. i especially like "Love story" for its a very nice and soothing song sang by Taylor Swift. At the same time, i was also introduced to some of the old english songs that jiaqi chose. Sounds a bit familiar when she sang it but i just can't remember the song title for it. Usually only the chorus part of the old songs rings a bell in my head. i don't really have good memory for songs, especially their lyrics! I will have to follow the lyrics on the screen, haha... One exception to it is unless the songs are under my favourites list.
And as usual, i sang my favourite chinese songs from autumn's concerto:D I just came to realize that most of my favourite songs are quite emo. Not that i'm an emo person, but somehow i just like the meaning of the lyrics behind those songs. Sadly, one of the mike was a bit faulty that day. Towards the end, we shared mike, of which the one with the better quality. Not only having encounter with faulty mike that day, the room which we were first allocated to had poor lightings. It was so dim till i can't even see my friend's face. Let to say capturing good shots during our stay there. We had a change of room then... Given only the two of us in that kbox room, it was quite spacious. However it was freezing cold in that room. My hand was almost stiffed when i came out from that room. Jiaqi and i started sneezing for we are quite sensitive to the coldness.

we decided to have something hot and we came to a consensus to have pepper lunch for dinner after ksession. I love this unagi pepper lunch. Yummy Tasty Sizzling Hot Decadence! This is actually under student meal promotion, $5.90 nett for this combo (Unagi Pepper Lunch + Drink) Coincidentally it was also the release of results on 4th of June. As i was having dinner with jiaqi, i received smses from friends that results are out during the evening time. i started feeling a bit uptight and jittery upon receiving those messages.

Heaving a sigh of relief after the check... Not that bad, i thought. i maintained my last semester's results, with slight improvement this semester. I'm an easily contented person when it comes to results so long as i didn't perform worse off my expectation or drop drastically as compared to the previous one. Still, there's definitely more room for improvements and my goal for next upcoming semester in year two is to score an "A" for one or two of my modules. i hope i can continue to keep my fighting spirit there during the exam-mugging period.

That's for now.

Bon Voyage

Bon Voyage

She's leaving for U.S.A in less than a week's time. With that, it also means that i will have lesser one companion to accompany me for tea session. Gonna' miss her and our favourite tea session times together... Yesterday evening was sort of a bidding farewell session for her before her U.S.A trip. Her flight is sooO early in the morning, if not i will go send her off during her departure day to U.S.A. OMG!!! U.S.A (Los Angeles, Las Vegas), she's gonna visit these cities during her two-weeks holiday in America. How i wish i would have signed up for this trip too. It's a rare chance, once in a lifetime having such good package offer for a U.S.A trip. Two weeks stay for just 2000plus to 3000. i shouldn't have give it a miss, argh!!! Back then, my bangkok trip was actually back to back with this u.s.a trip and that's the main reason why i gave it a miss. Somehow, bangkok trip is now postponed to august 13th to 16th due to the chaos there.

However, if i were to go for this u.s.a trip, i would have missed my cousin's wedding on the 11th of june. It's around the corner and i'm kinda getting excited for this is the first time that a cousin from my mum's side is actually holding a wedding. She's the first one to do so. we captured many many shots at coffeebean yesterday meanwhile savouring our cake delights and hazelnut ice-blended coffee. i love deb's newly bought canon ixus 130! The photo qualities are good, of sharp images and there's actually this interesting "fish-eye effect" that you can play with in this camera. i was telling her that i wanted dslr camera and my another friend, jiaqi once told me that canon ixus 130 the next second best option to dslr for the mega pixel is as high as 14.1 and the turn-out of the photos is clear and sharp. It's only then did i realize that deb actually bought that camera which i was referring to after telling her the whole chunk about it. she didn't even recognize her own camera's brand name...haha!

Having a good camera with high mega pixel is important. i think it's very worth spending a little more on a good one for this is something that will be with you for the next few years. It's going to be long-lasting provided that you take good care of it and don't drop or misplace it accidentally. Camera is of the utmost importance here when it comes to overseas. You need good camera to capture the most captivating scenery over at other countries. Both of us ordered the same drink- Hazelnut ice-blended coffee and we shared two pieces of cake namely "chocolate in a thousand leaves" and "carrot cake" Carrot cake wasn't so much to my liking mainly due to the cinnamon. i loathe cinnamon. Hazelnut blended coffee was a new try for me and i recommended deb that too. i once had a sip of my friend's one and felt that it was nice. However, i still prefer starbuck's java chip or perhaps blackforest at coffeebean to it. well, but it's not a bad try though...we have no idea how come we couldn't even finish up the two pieces of cake last evening. They weren't of very big portion, but somehow we just can't stuff them all into our stomach! Shouldn't have ordered two cakes in the first place. Now, we know...Deb is my photographer for the day. She likes taking candid shot. i wasn't caught off guard. i stay alert! haha...And so, why are you secretly shooting me again now?! (*laughs*) This time round, it's my turn to take one for her. My first attempt failed for she said she looked too serious in the photo. Hence, i got her a more relaxing, funky one during the second shot and she was pleased with the photo:) i was telling her she looked as though she is in u.s.a's coffeebean. Anyway, U.S.A has coffeebean there for sure and all coffeebean outlets look mostly the same... So, just pause and imagine yourself there already for the next few seconds...

Have a safe and smooth journey there, girl. Be sure to take lotsssss of photos and spam your facebook with them. Enjoy your two weeks holiday over at las vegas and los angeles. Looking forward to your return back in singapore to share your exciting stories with me during our next tea session. Bon Voyage!

Off to prepare for k-session later at safra's country club. That's for now.

Maintaining a long-lasting friendship

Maintaining a long-lasting friendship

13 years of friendship in the blink of an eye. She has been my first best primary school mate ever since the age of 7 when we first entered P1. Time flies, it's 13 years later now and we are still good friends till date. i'm actually impressed by the fact that though we don't often meet up, sometimes stretched even as long as one year plus, our friendship is still as solid as before. It requires both parties to play a part in maintaining this long-lasting friendship just like how it takes two hands to clap and i do hope our friendship will continue to grow... A pity another good primary mate of ours couldn't join us for she had work on weekends. If not, it would be a complete trio's outing. i miss you, girls.

We always have countless topics to chat with each other especially the fact that we're meeting only like after a year or so. Definitely, there's so much to catch up with one another. i had a good chat with zhen on that saturday. It seems as though we were back to those carefree childhood days, with the innocent juvenile minds... The chat went on and on and our food almost went cold. Usually i don't really have liking for mushroom pasta with creamy sauce but on that day when i ordered chicken and mushroom spaghetti, i actually love it. i didn't find it too creamy, just nice for my appetite. Lovely decadence.

Zhen was helping me to capture a photo with her sony ericsson camera phone at Jack's place. i love this shot. A warm glow of candlelit effect...
Meeting up once a year isn't enough and we have more plans coming up soon. Planning-in-progress, tsktsk. Though now they are busy with work, but time can be arranged to accomodate one another's hectic life or work schedule. Mermaid, are you doing fine? You're a busy busy girl! Let's hope we can meet up soon again for our next outing trip together as a whole.

Allow me to digress a bit towards the end of this entry, i actually have this desire to go universal studio, somehow, a sudden urge. i know its expensive but i guess it's worth a first-time visit. Singapore is sooo small, have been visiting the usual places over and over again. Perhaps Universal Studio would be a new experience for most, if not definitely for me, haha...