Have a new distraction recently - Team Fortress 2 - a really cute game (it's like Counter-Strike but much cuter with various items) introduced by XL and the best part is that it's free to play! Considering that, it's really a v good game and I realise that the offers on Steam (esp the Xmas deals so far) are really v good and MUCH cheaper than buying from the shops here!
Anyway, nothing much recently other than enjoying myself playing com and chilling at home. Met up with Jon, DS and Roy to play mahjong on Wed and after going up the 1st round, the 2nd round was terribly bad with v bad luck. You know it when you keep picking up bad cards like the 2nd last or last card of a wind or dragon and when you're calling 3 cards to game and pick up a card to throw for a "men-qing" (that's a ping-hu with nothing on the table) [not as bad as the time when I almost tian-hu then threw 3 kah-loongs to lose lol]. People zi-mo 4/5 tai when I never throw anything to them so it's just suay lor but oh well, that's mahjong and puts and end to my winning streak, just when I thought I was bouncing back on a string of big wins haha. But it was really fun and enjoyed the crapping when we were playing - a lot of dirty jokes and trash talk =P Dinner at Eastpoint Paradise Inn and the food is quite tasty, one of the reasons I enjoy eating food at the various Paradise Inn outlets - so far all have served good quality food at reasonable prices. =)
Met up with the MJ Bros for a massage at Chinatown on Thu at this shop called Teo Chew Meng Reflexology Centre and it was pretty good. For Singapore, the prices are probably on the cheaper side ($20 for 45 min of foot + shoulder massage - mainly foot) and the aunties there quite friendly and seem quite pro lol. They will tell you what problems you might have as they press your feet and mine asked if I'd been drinking a lot of soya bean (true, a small pack everyday) and cold water (not water itself, but other beverages) and drinking water too fast (maybe true)... The most painful part for all of us was when they press the region between the toes and the toe joints cos those are the least meaty parts so it's super pain! But ok lah, I felt good after the massage I think it's worth it =) Went for dinner at the nearby market at People's Park Complex and the guo1 tie1 from Tian Jin Fong Kee is really good! After that we went to HS's place to play a new game he bought called San1 Guo2 Sha1, basically a game based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms but the ideas are the same as a game I played before called Bang! It's just that they used the story to link to the cards but concept wise it's the same. Quite enjoyable first game but second game was a drag (and quite silly because I died abruptly after being struck by lightning, crap! =P) because it took ages to finish after the game was left with 3 so probably need to tweak that. It's a good game though at a price of $24.9, especially for fans of ROTK. =)
Met up with LJ (for gym) and XL (to see MY off to Canada) recently and they had some dental tips - (1) Floss everyday - something that people rarely do but it is v effective in preventing problems. Both of them do it regularly and even spend half an hour daily so it must be v important! (2) Do NOT brush your teeth immediately after you have eaten. Wait at least 30 min because your body produces lactic acid to break down the food (that includes drinks and sugary stuff such as sweets are the biggest culprits if you don't take care of your teeth properly) and this will soften the enamel which you will remove if you brush your teeth too soon. Your saliva will help to remineralise the teeth over time hence you should wait at least 30-40 min before brushing. Great tip I think! I used to think it's good to eat breakfast then brush so that can remove the food immediately but looks like it's not a good idea! (3) Brush your teeth in the correct manner so that the food from the small holes around your tooth (not visible to our naked eye) can be removed. This means to angle your toothbrush at 45 degrees to the base of your teeth (not a flat up and down kind of movement).
Time to review the many eateries that I've been to from July onwards! It's been really long though so I can't remember every dish but vaguely recall the better ones... (1) Bali Thai (at ION Orchard) - food's quite tasty at a decent price but the wait was v long (on a weekday dinner). The dish I like most is their chicken wings! (2) 3-Inch Sin (at Cluny Court - beside Serene Centre) Went there for dessert after Kuriya Dining and the molten chocolate cakes were AWESOME! I'm not a fan of chocolate but I loved eating it so that says much about it! (3) Lawry's (at Mandarin Gallery) - went there for high tea with my HJM from MJC after the mid-year exams, LOL. It was quite nice and a real "attas" ambience there. Food was decent but maybe pricey (attas food) but if you're a tai-tai that's not a problem. A nice place I'd say. (4) Marutama Ramen (at United Square) - I rem the first time I went to Marutama was at Liang Court with quite a few of my MJC friends a few years back and it was quite tasty though pricey. This time it seemed just ok and still quite pricey so not a fan of this - perhaps standards have dropped with the franchising? (5) Santoro (at Amara Hotel) - considering we spent about $80 per pax but I can't recall any dish that probably means it's decent but not outstanding to me at least... (6) Otto Ristorante (at Maxwell Road, Red Dot Traffic Building) - v nice place, nice ambience and I loved eating there, even though I'm not a big fan of Italian food. I think I had the degustation menu (nowadays I tend to spoil myself occasionally if it's about $100 or so - I've not earned enough to go for those $300+++ types yet =P) cos I remembered having a lot of dishes there and the one I remembered most was the amberjack because it was the first time I ate it and it was really tasty. I remembered they had a vegetarian set also so veggie lovers can try this place too! =) (7) South Coast (at MBS) - an Australian eatery I think and this was part of a dating event thing that I attended lol and the food was just ok to me and so were the people (most of them were much older than me lol). This really is NOT my kind of thing but I just accompanied a friend to look look see see. Can't hurt I guess but ya, I rather not go for such things again... (8) Novena Peranakan Cuisine (opposite Novena Square) - food was not bad but I remembered there were ants in the drink so that is a big no-no for me, never going back again. (9) Western Bar (at Jalan Gelenggang) - Quite a nice place but not easily accessibly via public transport. White truffle mushroom soup was the outstanding choice but the rest of the food was just ok. The boss was quite nice though cos the salad given didn't match the description in the menu so when we explained he offered us something else at no charge! (10) Honeymoon Dessert (at Bugis Junction) - my first visit was with some of the MJC (and ex-MJC) friends and the dessert there is quite tasty. Go for the "ren2 qi4" ones as shown in the menu and you can't go wrong! (11) Prive Cafe (at Keppel Bay) - nice ambience but can be v dark outside lol but also v inaccessible without public transport. Food there is decent and it's just a quite place near the waters if you like those kind of setting. (12) Tajimaya (at Vivocity) - v popular place and rightly so because the wagyu there is fantastic! It's a place I would want to go back to eat! (13) Ice Edge Cafe (at Kovan) - decent place for ice-cream but didn't excite me haha (14) Novus (at National Museum) - nice ambience but having spent about $100+ per pax I can't remember clearly what we ate. I think I had cod fish and some zucchini soup there but didn't recall v much, not a good sign I guess haha. The service was decent and they did have signs which explain the dish you are eating so that's quite cool. (15) Verve Pizza Bar (at Marina Bay City Gallery, around MBS) - ok place, food was just ok. The other thing I can recall was the waiter was v friendly and helpful haha... (16) Tampopo (at Liang Court) - quite a large variety of food and went for their ramen which was ok. The thing I like most is the milk pudding which is a must try! (17) Seafood Paradise (at Defu Lane) - have been hearing about the crabs at Defu Lane for a v long time and it didn't disappoint (though they only had the small ones) but quite inaccessible again.
(18) Joel Robuchon (at RWS) - By far, THE BEST restaurant I've ever been! It's soooooo good it deserves a paragraph of its own LOL. Really, eating at Joel Robuchon wasn't just a meal, it was a LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE. From the moment you enter, it's like wow - super posh! Beautiful and grand decor, from the lights to the table setting which have a grand black and gold colour combi, this was fine dining at its finest. It really made us feel under-dressed for the place so if you ever go there, please dress to the occasion! Why is it an experience? Because I saw and experienced more things than I ever did eating there. (a) They have separate menus for guys and ladies - the guys one have prices and the ladies one don't LOL. That's in line I guess with the French culture where the gentleman pays for everything. (b) There's a trolley for bread, another for cheese, and yet another for desserts - free flow! It's like OMG! The bread trolley was like wow - every single thing you've ever seen and more! From the basics like croissants (and there are many varieties) to basil and saffron flavoured bread, it'll bring tears of joy to bread lovers! Then there's the guy who comes around with butter flown in from France which is kept in a bell jar and he'll cut the butter for you on the spot before serving you. How cool is that??? I'm not a cheese fan so I didn't try but they also had huge varieties from the soft to hard so cheese lovers will enjoy that, together with the fruits that you can choose from. The dessert trolley was another wow - again almost everything you can think of, from macaroons, fruit tarts, opera cake - everything looked and tasted great! (c) The food was exquisite and some of the designs were simply intricate - like the dish where the chef dotted the entire plate with some greenish sauce and the dots were symmetrically placed and each dot was well done - something which looks so simple but yet requires much skill to make it so visually appealing! I had my wagyu, which was very nicely done (medium rare actually, something which I don't normally try in normal restaurants cos it can be v bloody) but it is the foie gras that was mind-blowing! Anyone who eats foie gras knows that moment when you bite into the foie gras and the oil oozes out to give you a truly o* feeling in your mouth. Hence the texture of the foie gras is important because if it's a little too hard then the kou3 gan3 will be lost. What distinguished the foie gras from anything else I've eaten is that it was sooooo smooth and soft inside that when you bite into it, it just melts into your mouth and gives me a high I've never had before. You know those food shows where the celebrities will give you this face and say it's soooo good? I'm sure you'll be like this too if you eat this! The only bad thing about eating this is that all other foie gras I eat since there just pales in comparison to it LOL. Summary: At about $200++ per pax it's the most expensive place that I've eaten at so far but NO REGRETS. Remember: It's NOT just a meal, it's an EXPERIENCE!
(19) Mozza Pizzeria (at MBS) - a popular place it seems and food was quite ok but seemed pricey to me and I don't think I'll ever like the salty meat kind of dishes that many Italian restaurants serve haha. (20) High Society (at MBS) - had stacks of macaroons, many funky flavours as we celebrated Shan's Birthday together and I realise macaroons really aren't my kind of dessert. It's too sweet for me! (21) Cherry Garden (at Mandarin Oriental) - went there for dim sum lunch and it's very tasty! Can see why they are so highly rated! Maybe a little pricey but for hotel food and the standard they have I think it's ok. (22) Urban Spoon (at Jalan Kayu) - food was sucky and really NOT worth the money. That was the worst $40 I spent on food! (23) Todai (at MBS) - as I'm listing out I just realise I seem to be eating a lot at MBS haha. Anyway, the buffet spread there was ok but for $50++ it was kinda difficult for me to eat my money's worth. It's good, but not good enough for me =) (24) Prime Cut (at Kovan) - ok heartland type of food at ok prices, nothing special to me... (25) Itacho Sushi (at Plaza Singapura) - v good place and they have a lot of good daily deals. The fresh scallops were the outstanding pick and highly recommended! (26) Tatsuya (at Goodwood Park Hotel) - outstanding sashimi! Fresh-flown from the famous Tsukiji Market! The $100 platter for 2 is definitely worth it cos there's a good variety and most importantly they taste really good and fresh! Will go back definitely! (27) Shin-Sapporo Ramen (at Century Square) - decent place, nothing much else... (28) Momoya (at Picardy Garden) - nice place for Jap buffet but quite inaccessible. (29) Ikkousha (at Iluma) - the place where there are many ramen stalls and we went for the one which seemed most popular and it was quite ok but seemed to be slightly more ex. Come to think of it, I really need to pay attention and find out which is the best place for ramen! (30) Nara (at Goldhill Centre near United Square) - decent Jap food at reasonable prices. (31) Royal China (at Raffles Hotel) - went for dim sum lunch with my HJM from MJC and the food there is quite good at decent price! Wouldn't mind going back again. (32) Keyaki (at Pan Pacific Hotel) - a real disappointment considering this was I think the first place that I ate during my journey of fine dining. Went for the omakase and had like 10+ dishes but none of them left me wanting for more and the worse part was that there was a bone in the salmon sashimi - something I've never had in years of eating sashimi even in crappy food places and nobody else seems to have experienced that before. The worst thing? Having to pay $150 for the meal - THAT is a waste of money! Not going back there again! (33) Peach Garden (opposite Novena Square) - decent dim sum at reasonable price. The XO carrot cake was quite good! =) (34) L'Angolo Ristaurante Italiano (at Maxwell Road, Maxwell Chambers) - nice place for Italian food at a price though. The cod fish was quite well done and other dishes were decent though I can't recall much... (35) Jones the Grocer (at Dempsey Hill) - had the wagyu beef burger and it was quite nice. Nice place to chill but Dempsey Hill isn't a very accessible place. Mandarin Gallery would be much better and there's another branch there. (36) Megumi (at East Coast) - nice place for Jap food and went there to celebrate Jana's birthday. Liked the fried rice but foie gras was just ok =D
Ok, finally done with the reviews - phew! Been absent from blogging too long already and still need to update my thoughts and reflections for the year before 2012 starts soon! For now, it's time to play! Just bought L4D and L4D2 online and downloaded liao so gonna start killing zombies! =D
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Done with Skyrim - FINALLY! MJC Prom Night; MJ Bros Games Gathering; CT's Death; SRPQ Outing; Pool with Army Kakis; IGC Outing; Futsal @ The Hangar
FINALLY, after about 170 hours of Skyrim I have finally completed possibly the biggest RPG ever! =D Having spent such a huge amount of time playing this game - I don't think I want to spend another few hours typing a detailed review of the game haha. So shall just try to keep this simple...
Pros: (1) Value for money - $65 for 170 hours is as good as it gets. (2) Fantastic graphics and sound - really HUGE world with beautiful scenery and intricate designs of buildings for each of the major cities. Characters and monsters look great! Sound effects and music were well done and contributed to a very enjoyable experience. (3) Huge array of things to do - smithing, enchanting, training, fighting, dungeon exploring, quests - THAT's why it took so long to complete (my quest log was practically bursting from about 10 hours into the game to nearing the end of the game) (4) Great storyline - the story of the Dragonborn was interesting (shan't reveal more to avoid spoilers) and so were the respective ones involving the war of Skyrim, Thieves' Guild, Companions, and Dark Brotherhood and some of the powers gained made it more interesting. (5) Fuss-free gaming - I liked the fact that the game was generally quite smooth - from the installation to the gameplay - something I don't take for granted after some bad experiences with other games (Bioshock and Deadspace). Nothing irritates you more than getting your hands on a much anticipated game and being unable to play it properly!
Cons: (1) Toooo long (lol) - Hard to please eh? This is ironic since I talked about value for money earlier but the game did get kinda draggy towards the later half of the game and I just wanted to finish it asap. (2) Quests were not well organized - While it's nice and important to have many things to do in an RPG, the problem was there were too many and I spent a lot of time to keep track cos I couldn't even remember what the point of the quest was and who it came from until I make the quest active and find the location on the map to jog my memory. Considering there are many other games which keep a good catalogue of the quests and gave descriptions so that you remember what is happening, I felt that this was a big drawback of the gaem. (3) Battles too easy - Fighting was fun at the start when it was still fairly challenging but once my mage got stronger and I got dual-casting and impact, it was just too imba as I spammed firebolts from range. Might be better if you played a melee character. (4) Lack of affection for the characters and sub-plot - Despite the length of the game, the great storyline, and the fact that you can have followers, there is virtually inexistent interaction between your character and your follower (if you choose to have one). This is in comparison to Dragon Age: Origins (DAO) whereby I would normally travel with 3 other companions and would have to find some of these companions myself through certain encounters. These companions could have interesting conversations leading to their personal quests and romance options and you even have to pay attention to what they say so that you know what they like and know the appropriate gifts to make them like you more. Also, the decisions you make with the 4 sub-plots as mentioned above in the Pros point (4) have no impact on the main storyline and you could even get through the game without them (if you don't want to have the particular achievement). This again loses out to DAO big-time, which brilliantly tied in everything as part of the bigger picture and the decisions you make have significance on the game and the ending. (5) Achievements - Somehow I think the game-makers don't realise how important achievements are to RPG players. Generally I think we are quite OCD people with the aim of getting any achievement (within reasonable means at least) and for a game which lasts 100++ hours, it is surprising there are only 50 achievements. As I played the game, I could certainly think of much more things they could give credit to! (6) Bugs - rare for a game to not have them, esp one as big as Skyrim but there was one which threatened to ruin the game near the end which I thankfully avoided due to an earlier saved game so my warning if you want to play this game is to be careful if you kill any soldiers.
Conclusion: 9/10 - Huge, worth buying but if you've not played DAO, play that instead cos that is the bomb. Finally I can go back to life on planet Earth =P
Moving on to the other things in my title...
(1) MJC Prom Night (7th Dec) - Held at Mandarin Orchard Hotel (incidentally where I had MY prom 13 years ago lol) and things went smoothly. Quite standard dressing from the guys (almost all in suits and tie) and for the girls, one of my friends observed that most wore quite tight-fitting dresses, which seemed to be the trend. I saw one dressed like for a wedding and I heard there was someone dressed as Snow White but I didn't get to see that haha. Only the Council TAs and the Photography Club teacher were around though, unlike previous years, and we could only surmise that this was a reflection of the relationship between the teachers and this cohort, something that I will elaborate upon when I do my reflection of my teaching experience for the year and cohort later this week. In fact, there was also not much photo taking this time round, unlike my previous 2 proms from past batches, and very little interaction with the students. Anyway, this time we were quite laxed though, and found time during the Prom to go to Bar on 5 (conveniently located just below the ballroom) for some drinks and to catch up on recent happenings, holiday plans, and future developments. I'm sure we will all miss the times that we've spent together as Council TAs after all the events and camps that we have been doing but we will still keep in contact after we move on. =)
Other than that, the trip to the prom itself was fairly interesting as the cab driver was v chatty but could converse quite well in English and seemed quite up-to-date with all the recent happenings and he talked to me about being a teacher and also about youngsters who seem to be lacking in values nowadays and cited to me an incident about some drunk youths who threw up in the car but refused to pay up. Funny thing was he said that karma was at work and they got what they deserved because after he cleaned up the car he found a phone which probably belonged to one of them and promptly sold it for $500 and joked that he was thankful to have a holiday after that cos he could stay at home for the next 2-3 days. Can't really say that he was wrong there and they deserve it for affecting his livelihood...
(2) MJ Bros Games Gathering (9th Dec) - met up with some of my MJ Bros for lunch around Boon Keng and then to one of their place to play board games (more like cards actually cos all our games involves cards only). We played some of the ones we've played recently, such as Loco (self-made because the game is apparently sooooo old that it's out of print lol, but it's really simple and fun!), Take 6 (my friend bought Take 5 actually but the rules were so complicated I just taught them to play Take 6 using the same cards) and the classic Citadels. Lost by 1 point after 6 rounds of Loco, tragically, then won Take 6 after 4 rounds including an epic comeback (3 of us were laughing and cheering everytime we managed to sabo the leading player until I came back from a 46 point deficit to win by about 20 points, quite unbelievable indeed), and won Citadel in a truly epic ending. I had a card in play called the "Ball Room" where after I called out each player to take their turn they must say "Thanks Your Excellency" or else forfeit their turn. After I built my final district thus making the current round the last round, my bro got too excited to finish building his final distract also and thus got caught by us (this after another person got caught by me in the previous round) and that cost him the game and we all had a good laugh after that. Perhaps it was karma also lol since I was assassinated twice by him in the game. Quite a few of them have flown off though so it'll be next year before I meet up with them for more of such entertainment!
(3) CT's Death (10th Dec) - on a more sombre note, my CT from AJC passed away on Thu and I went to pay my last respects at the Singapore Casket on Sat. I had actually arranged with some of my other ex-classmates to go there but on the day itself, some of them couldn't make it last minute and in the end I ended up going alone. Not too sure how important some of the things they had to take care of are, but I thought it would be important to pay my last respects even though I wasn't exactly close to her and didn't keep in contact with her after A Levels, apart from seeing her at one or two of my friends' weddings. It also makes me wonder when my time comes, who will actually take time off to see me for the last time... Anyway, it was surreal to see her lying in the coffin and it was a long time since I last saw someone in a coffin (can't even remember when that was, maybe as a child). At the point of time I was thinking back about how she was like last time, getting flashbacks of her teaching and stuff. I learned about what had happened from her cousin, who was the one who did all the funeral arrangements and contacting as many people as possible about my CT's death. She was suffering from cancer from about end of 2009 after she decided to not undergo a major operation on some growth in her throat (or somewhere around there) even though doctors said there was a 25% chance that it might be malignant. Unfortunately, it did turn malignant and she went on radiotherapy and then chemotherapy and it subsided in March 2010 but then she had a relapse I think around end of last year and decided not to have treatment because it was too painful. We actually planned to visit her about 3 months ago but my friend who was coordinating said that she was in too much pain and thus she suggested we visit her later on when things were better and in fact we were just planning to make that visit 2 weeks ago when news of her death arrived so I felt I had to go down after all that delay. Seems like I was part of her first batch and I felt a bit bad that I wasn't a good student (at least not for Biology, my most hated subject) but I guess it's all in the past now. The whole incident has given me a lot of food for thought in recent months about how much to give in teaching and how important good health is and to not neglect it in the midst of the busyness of my work. Also, her cousin said that at least she led a colourful life, going skydiving, horse riding and stuff and in death she wore her favourite Vietnamese dress and boots and accessories. Also gave me more food for thought about doing the stuff I have not done yet and there are many things I want to do over the next few years as I take a break from teaching. I've given too much of my life these 6 years to teaching and it's time for me to find some time of my own... More about my thoughts later this week...
(4) SRPQ Outing (12th Dec) - Back to happier stuff, went out with the SRPQ (minus MY cos apparently she was sick though the other girls joked that she pang-seh us) to play. Met AQ at Stadium MRT to bring her over to Singapore Swimming Club (cos XL's tuition kid is a member there), which was quite a walk from the station and she kept saying that we were lost though I assured her I knew we were on the right track haha. Eventually got there and we played about 1.5 hours of badminton, a good workout after about a year's break since playing with the SC. XL was coaching haha and apparently he played for his primary school and the girls damn funny lah cos after a while they change their aim to hitting my face so sometimes during the rallies they will aim but I changed my stance to one where my racket is always covering my face lol. Anyway, badminton is definitely not my strength but still decent enough for some proper rallies lah. After that we went for 1.5 hours of bowling and played 3 games each in total. It's been soooooo long since I last bowled and the first game was so sucky (even though all sucked in the first one). At least after a long while I finally started to find my ground and improved in the next 2 games, esp after switching to a 14-pound ball (never used that in the past), to win by a big margin but nothing to be proud of lah haha. Throughout the whole game, XL and his student kept laughing and mocking each other and it was quite entertaining at first but after a while, it was a bit irritating haha. I definitely cannot teach young kids - too immature!
(5) Pool with Army Kakis (13th Dec) - met up with my 10SIB army kakis for our usual dinner and pool at Katong Shopping Centre. PT is back for good after his studies in Australia are done and will take the rest of his law modules in NUS. Eric is in charge of some research projects with MINDEF and busy with his new-born kid. WC has switched from his design field to working at the People's Association at Geylang Serai CC, haha a very huge change in work. MZ is still the same. As usual, they like to ka chiow me cos most of us were late and someone joked that the last one to reach should pay for pool and we were updating our statuses over Whatsapp and towards the end, Eric said that PT hasn't reached yet and that I might still beat him to it if I ran from the bus stop. I guessed as much they were fooling with me cos PT was around Katong Mall a long time ago and even with a traffic jam it wouldn't take him so long but nevertheless I played along and msg them that I was running but in the end I strolled in and unsurprisingly the four of them were huddled over Eric's phone to see my replies and having a good laugh hahaha. Anyway, pool was terrible and I never felt right the entire night hitting the shots. The moment I got onto the table, the posture and positioning seemed all wrong and I had so little confidence in myself that I used the stand even when I didn't have to and deserved to lose my relegation match where I missed a sitter for the black ball using the stand. Ah well, I better try to practice soon and make sure I get back at them! =P
(6) IGC Outing (14th Dec) - Went out with 11 of the guys from 06 and 07 batch, including some of the semi-IGC people haha. Went to Chin Chin Eating House at Purvis Street for dinner, which is mainly a place for Hainanese food I think (or at least that's their speciality) and they had quite decent "zi char" food at reasonable prices. Not blown away (I rarely am nowadays, probably been eating tooooo much good food hehe) but it was ok. Haven't met up with many of them for years, particularly those in the 07 batch, so it was good to find out how they are doing. Ended up at Bugis Junction's Honeymoon Desserts, which is quite a good place for dessert and then ended playing bridge with Jon, DS, and LJ, reliving the good old days of our time in IGC haha. Those were the days when we used to hang out for dinner after IGC meetings on Wed, playing at BK or Mac's at White Sands and even outside the MRT (for god knows what reason lol). The intellectual stimulation is always something I have missed but it's a lot of work to play at a high level and something which many can't appreciate. I'm happy to hear about the gold and silver medals that Singapore won at the Sea Games recently though and hopefully that will encourage more people to play contract bridge rather than some crappy floating bridge that youngsters normally play. =D Need to find the time to meet up again to play bridge and board games!
(7) Futsal @ The Hangar (20th Dec) - Went to a really ulu place at Punggol Marina Country Club and good thing I got a lift from my army buddy after we went for dinner at Old Airport Road Food Centre. Had 17 people, mainly from my army buddy's clique of secondary school friends and it was a good kickabout considering I haven't played much in recent years cos I kept getting major injuries so I was happy just to have a few decent games and keep myself relatively free from major injuries (got a couple of bruises and seems like I strained my right hamstring/gluteal but better than the sprained ankles that I had from previous times). Surprisingly my best performances came when I was goalkeeping and my passing was better there. Pretty pissed off with myself when I went upfront cos some of the attacking moves broke down after some uncharacteristic bad passing and missed a few chances. Trying to arrange with some of the boys to play soon and am looking forward to it. Would be a good way to kick off 2012!
So far it's been a fruitful holidays and I shall try to meet up with more of the other people whom I've not seen for some time. Will try to post daily from now on now that I'm done with Skyrim lol...
Pros: (1) Value for money - $65 for 170 hours is as good as it gets. (2) Fantastic graphics and sound - really HUGE world with beautiful scenery and intricate designs of buildings for each of the major cities. Characters and monsters look great! Sound effects and music were well done and contributed to a very enjoyable experience. (3) Huge array of things to do - smithing, enchanting, training, fighting, dungeon exploring, quests - THAT's why it took so long to complete (my quest log was practically bursting from about 10 hours into the game to nearing the end of the game) (4) Great storyline - the story of the Dragonborn was interesting (shan't reveal more to avoid spoilers) and so were the respective ones involving the war of Skyrim, Thieves' Guild, Companions, and Dark Brotherhood and some of the powers gained made it more interesting. (5) Fuss-free gaming - I liked the fact that the game was generally quite smooth - from the installation to the gameplay - something I don't take for granted after some bad experiences with other games (Bioshock and Deadspace). Nothing irritates you more than getting your hands on a much anticipated game and being unable to play it properly!
Cons: (1) Toooo long (lol) - Hard to please eh? This is ironic since I talked about value for money earlier but the game did get kinda draggy towards the later half of the game and I just wanted to finish it asap. (2) Quests were not well organized - While it's nice and important to have many things to do in an RPG, the problem was there were too many and I spent a lot of time to keep track cos I couldn't even remember what the point of the quest was and who it came from until I make the quest active and find the location on the map to jog my memory. Considering there are many other games which keep a good catalogue of the quests and gave descriptions so that you remember what is happening, I felt that this was a big drawback of the gaem. (3) Battles too easy - Fighting was fun at the start when it was still fairly challenging but once my mage got stronger and I got dual-casting and impact, it was just too imba as I spammed firebolts from range. Might be better if you played a melee character. (4) Lack of affection for the characters and sub-plot - Despite the length of the game, the great storyline, and the fact that you can have followers, there is virtually inexistent interaction between your character and your follower (if you choose to have one). This is in comparison to Dragon Age: Origins (DAO) whereby I would normally travel with 3 other companions and would have to find some of these companions myself through certain encounters. These companions could have interesting conversations leading to their personal quests and romance options and you even have to pay attention to what they say so that you know what they like and know the appropriate gifts to make them like you more. Also, the decisions you make with the 4 sub-plots as mentioned above in the Pros point (4) have no impact on the main storyline and you could even get through the game without them (if you don't want to have the particular achievement). This again loses out to DAO big-time, which brilliantly tied in everything as part of the bigger picture and the decisions you make have significance on the game and the ending. (5) Achievements - Somehow I think the game-makers don't realise how important achievements are to RPG players. Generally I think we are quite OCD people with the aim of getting any achievement (within reasonable means at least) and for a game which lasts 100++ hours, it is surprising there are only 50 achievements. As I played the game, I could certainly think of much more things they could give credit to! (6) Bugs - rare for a game to not have them, esp one as big as Skyrim but there was one which threatened to ruin the game near the end which I thankfully avoided due to an earlier saved game so my warning if you want to play this game is to be careful if you kill any soldiers.
Conclusion: 9/10 - Huge, worth buying but if you've not played DAO, play that instead cos that is the bomb. Finally I can go back to life on planet Earth =P
Moving on to the other things in my title...
(1) MJC Prom Night (7th Dec) - Held at Mandarin Orchard Hotel (incidentally where I had MY prom 13 years ago lol) and things went smoothly. Quite standard dressing from the guys (almost all in suits and tie) and for the girls, one of my friends observed that most wore quite tight-fitting dresses, which seemed to be the trend. I saw one dressed like for a wedding and I heard there was someone dressed as Snow White but I didn't get to see that haha. Only the Council TAs and the Photography Club teacher were around though, unlike previous years, and we could only surmise that this was a reflection of the relationship between the teachers and this cohort, something that I will elaborate upon when I do my reflection of my teaching experience for the year and cohort later this week. In fact, there was also not much photo taking this time round, unlike my previous 2 proms from past batches, and very little interaction with the students. Anyway, this time we were quite laxed though, and found time during the Prom to go to Bar on 5 (conveniently located just below the ballroom) for some drinks and to catch up on recent happenings, holiday plans, and future developments. I'm sure we will all miss the times that we've spent together as Council TAs after all the events and camps that we have been doing but we will still keep in contact after we move on. =)
Other than that, the trip to the prom itself was fairly interesting as the cab driver was v chatty but could converse quite well in English and seemed quite up-to-date with all the recent happenings and he talked to me about being a teacher and also about youngsters who seem to be lacking in values nowadays and cited to me an incident about some drunk youths who threw up in the car but refused to pay up. Funny thing was he said that karma was at work and they got what they deserved because after he cleaned up the car he found a phone which probably belonged to one of them and promptly sold it for $500 and joked that he was thankful to have a holiday after that cos he could stay at home for the next 2-3 days. Can't really say that he was wrong there and they deserve it for affecting his livelihood...
(2) MJ Bros Games Gathering (9th Dec) - met up with some of my MJ Bros for lunch around Boon Keng and then to one of their place to play board games (more like cards actually cos all our games involves cards only). We played some of the ones we've played recently, such as Loco (self-made because the game is apparently sooooo old that it's out of print lol, but it's really simple and fun!), Take 6 (my friend bought Take 5 actually but the rules were so complicated I just taught them to play Take 6 using the same cards) and the classic Citadels. Lost by 1 point after 6 rounds of Loco, tragically, then won Take 6 after 4 rounds including an epic comeback (3 of us were laughing and cheering everytime we managed to sabo the leading player until I came back from a 46 point deficit to win by about 20 points, quite unbelievable indeed), and won Citadel in a truly epic ending. I had a card in play called the "Ball Room" where after I called out each player to take their turn they must say "Thanks Your Excellency" or else forfeit their turn. After I built my final district thus making the current round the last round, my bro got too excited to finish building his final distract also and thus got caught by us (this after another person got caught by me in the previous round) and that cost him the game and we all had a good laugh after that. Perhaps it was karma also lol since I was assassinated twice by him in the game. Quite a few of them have flown off though so it'll be next year before I meet up with them for more of such entertainment!
(3) CT's Death (10th Dec) - on a more sombre note, my CT from AJC passed away on Thu and I went to pay my last respects at the Singapore Casket on Sat. I had actually arranged with some of my other ex-classmates to go there but on the day itself, some of them couldn't make it last minute and in the end I ended up going alone. Not too sure how important some of the things they had to take care of are, but I thought it would be important to pay my last respects even though I wasn't exactly close to her and didn't keep in contact with her after A Levels, apart from seeing her at one or two of my friends' weddings. It also makes me wonder when my time comes, who will actually take time off to see me for the last time... Anyway, it was surreal to see her lying in the coffin and it was a long time since I last saw someone in a coffin (can't even remember when that was, maybe as a child). At the point of time I was thinking back about how she was like last time, getting flashbacks of her teaching and stuff. I learned about what had happened from her cousin, who was the one who did all the funeral arrangements and contacting as many people as possible about my CT's death. She was suffering from cancer from about end of 2009 after she decided to not undergo a major operation on some growth in her throat (or somewhere around there) even though doctors said there was a 25% chance that it might be malignant. Unfortunately, it did turn malignant and she went on radiotherapy and then chemotherapy and it subsided in March 2010 but then she had a relapse I think around end of last year and decided not to have treatment because it was too painful. We actually planned to visit her about 3 months ago but my friend who was coordinating said that she was in too much pain and thus she suggested we visit her later on when things were better and in fact we were just planning to make that visit 2 weeks ago when news of her death arrived so I felt I had to go down after all that delay. Seems like I was part of her first batch and I felt a bit bad that I wasn't a good student (at least not for Biology, my most hated subject) but I guess it's all in the past now. The whole incident has given me a lot of food for thought in recent months about how much to give in teaching and how important good health is and to not neglect it in the midst of the busyness of my work. Also, her cousin said that at least she led a colourful life, going skydiving, horse riding and stuff and in death she wore her favourite Vietnamese dress and boots and accessories. Also gave me more food for thought about doing the stuff I have not done yet and there are many things I want to do over the next few years as I take a break from teaching. I've given too much of my life these 6 years to teaching and it's time for me to find some time of my own... More about my thoughts later this week...
(4) SRPQ Outing (12th Dec) - Back to happier stuff, went out with the SRPQ (minus MY cos apparently she was sick though the other girls joked that she pang-seh us) to play. Met AQ at Stadium MRT to bring her over to Singapore Swimming Club (cos XL's tuition kid is a member there), which was quite a walk from the station and she kept saying that we were lost though I assured her I knew we were on the right track haha. Eventually got there and we played about 1.5 hours of badminton, a good workout after about a year's break since playing with the SC. XL was coaching haha and apparently he played for his primary school and the girls damn funny lah cos after a while they change their aim to hitting my face so sometimes during the rallies they will aim but I changed my stance to one where my racket is always covering my face lol. Anyway, badminton is definitely not my strength but still decent enough for some proper rallies lah. After that we went for 1.5 hours of bowling and played 3 games each in total. It's been soooooo long since I last bowled and the first game was so sucky (even though all sucked in the first one). At least after a long while I finally started to find my ground and improved in the next 2 games, esp after switching to a 14-pound ball (never used that in the past), to win by a big margin but nothing to be proud of lah haha. Throughout the whole game, XL and his student kept laughing and mocking each other and it was quite entertaining at first but after a while, it was a bit irritating haha. I definitely cannot teach young kids - too immature!
(5) Pool with Army Kakis (13th Dec) - met up with my 10SIB army kakis for our usual dinner and pool at Katong Shopping Centre. PT is back for good after his studies in Australia are done and will take the rest of his law modules in NUS. Eric is in charge of some research projects with MINDEF and busy with his new-born kid. WC has switched from his design field to working at the People's Association at Geylang Serai CC, haha a very huge change in work. MZ is still the same. As usual, they like to ka chiow me cos most of us were late and someone joked that the last one to reach should pay for pool and we were updating our statuses over Whatsapp and towards the end, Eric said that PT hasn't reached yet and that I might still beat him to it if I ran from the bus stop. I guessed as much they were fooling with me cos PT was around Katong Mall a long time ago and even with a traffic jam it wouldn't take him so long but nevertheless I played along and msg them that I was running but in the end I strolled in and unsurprisingly the four of them were huddled over Eric's phone to see my replies and having a good laugh hahaha. Anyway, pool was terrible and I never felt right the entire night hitting the shots. The moment I got onto the table, the posture and positioning seemed all wrong and I had so little confidence in myself that I used the stand even when I didn't have to and deserved to lose my relegation match where I missed a sitter for the black ball using the stand. Ah well, I better try to practice soon and make sure I get back at them! =P
(6) IGC Outing (14th Dec) - Went out with 11 of the guys from 06 and 07 batch, including some of the semi-IGC people haha. Went to Chin Chin Eating House at Purvis Street for dinner, which is mainly a place for Hainanese food I think (or at least that's their speciality) and they had quite decent "zi char" food at reasonable prices. Not blown away (I rarely am nowadays, probably been eating tooooo much good food hehe) but it was ok. Haven't met up with many of them for years, particularly those in the 07 batch, so it was good to find out how they are doing. Ended up at Bugis Junction's Honeymoon Desserts, which is quite a good place for dessert and then ended playing bridge with Jon, DS, and LJ, reliving the good old days of our time in IGC haha. Those were the days when we used to hang out for dinner after IGC meetings on Wed, playing at BK or Mac's at White Sands and even outside the MRT (for god knows what reason lol). The intellectual stimulation is always something I have missed but it's a lot of work to play at a high level and something which many can't appreciate. I'm happy to hear about the gold and silver medals that Singapore won at the Sea Games recently though and hopefully that will encourage more people to play contract bridge rather than some crappy floating bridge that youngsters normally play. =D Need to find the time to meet up again to play bridge and board games!
(7) Futsal @ The Hangar (20th Dec) - Went to a really ulu place at Punggol Marina Country Club and good thing I got a lift from my army buddy after we went for dinner at Old Airport Road Food Centre. Had 17 people, mainly from my army buddy's clique of secondary school friends and it was a good kickabout considering I haven't played much in recent years cos I kept getting major injuries so I was happy just to have a few decent games and keep myself relatively free from major injuries (got a couple of bruises and seems like I strained my right hamstring/gluteal but better than the sprained ankles that I had from previous times). Surprisingly my best performances came when I was goalkeeping and my passing was better there. Pretty pissed off with myself when I went upfront cos some of the attacking moves broke down after some uncharacteristic bad passing and missed a few chances. Trying to arrange with some of the boys to play soon and am looking forward to it. Would be a good way to kick off 2012!
So far it's been a fruitful holidays and I shall try to meet up with more of the other people whom I've not seen for some time. Will try to post daily from now on now that I'm done with Skyrim lol...
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Skyrim; Unique Names in the Army; SRPQ @ Penang Place; Easing back into things...
Delayed my update no thanks to my latest distraction - "Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim" - which I went to buy right after my ICT ended on Fri. Apparently it is very popular and the guys I've spoken to have heard good things about it. Anyway, so far it does look like it's a HUGE game - been playing for like 50 hours over the past few days (or at least that's what the record says) and I don't think I'm even 20% done with the game cos there are like soooooo many places to travel to and things to do. When I'm finally done with the game, I'll do my review of it heh. =p
Anyway, just recalled some funny stuff in the army, namely unique names cos I saw on the uniform names such as Roshe (reminds me of Roshan in Dota) and Maison (reminds me of Ma Maison restaurant), and somebody with the surname "Tuang" (LOL it's so striking that sure kenna arrow so that he can't tuang hahaha). I remember when I was serving as an NSF there was somebody named Goose... Then some of my army acquaintances said that they say other strange names, and I think the one that takes the cake is Concept. LOLOL, like seriously?! If I ever had a student with that name you can only imagine the kind of crap that can take place in class... e.g. Concept is absent - "Oh, so today we have NO CONCEPT?" Concept answers a question wrongly - "Oh, looks like you have WRONG CONCEPT?" Hahahaha. Sounds like there won't be a reservist for me next year but there's a big one in 2013 so we'll see what happens then!
Met up with the SRPQ (i.e. XL, ZY, MY, AQ) on Mon at the Penang Place. But before that, I was busy rushing all over to settle some stuff in school and then some last-minute shopping heh for birthday pressies... Went to Plaza Singapura and good thing was I managed to find everything I needed there for the presents for the 4 of them as well as an ice-cream cake - challenging though! But they seemed to like it based on their expression and response (some more so than others haha) so at least the effort, thought and time was worth it even though it was quite last minute! Good thing I do things fast... =P
Anyway, great to have caught up with them after so long! It's like the last time we met was in Jul I think to celebrate AQ and my birthday and before that was last year already! So XL and ZY are going on strong and they are a really compatible couple and they went on a trip around Singapore and had a picnic at Botanical Gardens - so sweet! They are going to Vietnam soon for 10 days and it's pretty interesting that there are so many things to do there cos I never heard of anyone going for holiday there for such a long time. Had a good chat with XL about com games also lolol and we shared about the upcoming games and great games from the past (Skyrim, Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect, Team Fortress 2, Diablo 3) and I think the girls were quite baffled by our guy talk lol. =p Then XL had a call from his tuition kid who was trying to change timing and he was v stern to him and ZY was joking that he's having an affair - so funny the way she put it! MY going to Canada very soon for her minor on environmental chemistry and AQ is taking a break from band and they were talking about some of the chem profs in NUS and asked about my time in NUS cos they are going to their honours year soon - how time flies!
Btw, food at Penang Place was pretty decent and if there are any concerns about eating there it is (1) venue - fusionopolis is probably kinda far for most people but at least it has a mrt on circle line right beside it so that helps (2) value for money - $24.9++ for dinner (Mon to Thu) - which doesn't sound v ex but looking at the variety of food, it's probably kinda hard to eat your money's worth cos most of the stuff should be quite cheap (for those who have been to Penang before, their specialty is the large variety of cheap hawker food so what do you expect?). But having said that, if you have a hankering for Penang food, that's a decent place to go to cos at least the food is quite tasty so ok lah =)
Went jogging with Jon ytd and then gym with him and Liju and we were crapping about "talented" people cos I was telling them that we should train our abs to be like this China Got Talent guy where he held a pole and lifted himself to a horizontal position which requires god-like abs to do that and would be hell to train for it but it's damn impressive! Then they talked about this woman from another country where her "talent" was to crush watermelons and beer cans with her boobs. LOLOL, yes, seriously! I just saw the video that they posted and it was damn sick... The power of silicon hahahaha. (google "watermelon smash talent" if interested to find the youtube video). Our conversations drifted all over and included a discussion of Schroedinger's Cat and jokes about being dead and undead and being in 2 different states at the same time and also our tagline of the day was "easing back into things" cos we kept finding excuses to slack (but it's still a tough workout) since we are just starting to gym again after a break due to Jon's exams (and I had OGL camp and reservist so I also took a break haha). Went to HDB hub for lunch at the food court there and I had some really good curry chicken (from Bishan apparently) and the rojak was also damn solid so highly recommended! =D
Prom night tonight so going out later to dye my hair again (cut off all the brown bits for reservist) and also to style... Looking forward to it!
Anyway, just recalled some funny stuff in the army, namely unique names cos I saw on the uniform names such as Roshe (reminds me of Roshan in Dota) and Maison (reminds me of Ma Maison restaurant), and somebody with the surname "Tuang" (LOL it's so striking that sure kenna arrow so that he can't tuang hahaha). I remember when I was serving as an NSF there was somebody named Goose... Then some of my army acquaintances said that they say other strange names, and I think the one that takes the cake is Concept. LOLOL, like seriously?! If I ever had a student with that name you can only imagine the kind of crap that can take place in class... e.g. Concept is absent - "Oh, so today we have NO CONCEPT?" Concept answers a question wrongly - "Oh, looks like you have WRONG CONCEPT?" Hahahaha. Sounds like there won't be a reservist for me next year but there's a big one in 2013 so we'll see what happens then!
Met up with the SRPQ (i.e. XL, ZY, MY, AQ) on Mon at the Penang Place. But before that, I was busy rushing all over to settle some stuff in school and then some last-minute shopping heh for birthday pressies... Went to Plaza Singapura and good thing was I managed to find everything I needed there for the presents for the 4 of them as well as an ice-cream cake - challenging though! But they seemed to like it based on their expression and response (some more so than others haha) so at least the effort, thought and time was worth it even though it was quite last minute! Good thing I do things fast... =P
Anyway, great to have caught up with them after so long! It's like the last time we met was in Jul I think to celebrate AQ and my birthday and before that was last year already! So XL and ZY are going on strong and they are a really compatible couple and they went on a trip around Singapore and had a picnic at Botanical Gardens - so sweet! They are going to Vietnam soon for 10 days and it's pretty interesting that there are so many things to do there cos I never heard of anyone going for holiday there for such a long time. Had a good chat with XL about com games also lolol and we shared about the upcoming games and great games from the past (Skyrim, Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect, Team Fortress 2, Diablo 3) and I think the girls were quite baffled by our guy talk lol. =p Then XL had a call from his tuition kid who was trying to change timing and he was v stern to him and ZY was joking that he's having an affair - so funny the way she put it! MY going to Canada very soon for her minor on environmental chemistry and AQ is taking a break from band and they were talking about some of the chem profs in NUS and asked about my time in NUS cos they are going to their honours year soon - how time flies!
Btw, food at Penang Place was pretty decent and if there are any concerns about eating there it is (1) venue - fusionopolis is probably kinda far for most people but at least it has a mrt on circle line right beside it so that helps (2) value for money - $24.9++ for dinner (Mon to Thu) - which doesn't sound v ex but looking at the variety of food, it's probably kinda hard to eat your money's worth cos most of the stuff should be quite cheap (for those who have been to Penang before, their specialty is the large variety of cheap hawker food so what do you expect?). But having said that, if you have a hankering for Penang food, that's a decent place to go to cos at least the food is quite tasty so ok lah =)
Went jogging with Jon ytd and then gym with him and Liju and we were crapping about "talented" people cos I was telling them that we should train our abs to be like this China Got Talent guy where he held a pole and lifted himself to a horizontal position which requires god-like abs to do that and would be hell to train for it but it's damn impressive! Then they talked about this woman from another country where her "talent" was to crush watermelons and beer cans with her boobs. LOLOL, yes, seriously! I just saw the video that they posted and it was damn sick... The power of silicon hahahaha. (google "watermelon smash talent" if interested to find the youtube video). Our conversations drifted all over and included a discussion of Schroedinger's Cat and jokes about being dead and undead and being in 2 different states at the same time and also our tagline of the day was "easing back into things" cos we kept finding excuses to slack (but it's still a tough workout) since we are just starting to gym again after a break due to Jon's exams (and I had OGL camp and reservist so I also took a break haha). Went to HDB hub for lunch at the food court there and I had some really good curry chicken (from Bishan apparently) and the rojak was also damn solid so highly recommended! =D
Prom night tonight so going out later to dye my hair again (cut off all the brown bits for reservist) and also to style... Looking forward to it!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
ICT
With the end of the A Levels on Tue, it is about time that I get back to updating on my life and recall the various moments of interest in my life!
For a starter, I'm almost at the end of my 4th high-key ICT (from 22nd Nov to 2nd Dec) which passed by relatively quickly except for this Mon to Wed where we had our brigade exercise and time passed excruciatingly slowly... But I'm blessed cos I wasn't given a specific role (was a spare) so I kept a low profile and even though it rained everyday I was either in shelter in the 5-tonner or in buildings so I didn't get wet which was our main concern haha. We went to ITI (at Jurong Camp 2) on first day for a short while before going to Tanjong Gul Camp which is probably one of the most ulu places in Singapore and were there for a day before we relocated again finally to Murai Urban Training Facility (never knew there was such a place) and that was a really good place to be located in cos we manned comms in an air-con room and could sleep in air-con comfort (though it was too cold at times esp at night) and I managed to dodge arrows accidentally, including one where I was eating prata so another person from the spare team was chosen to replace someone who was in a team located in a very hot location. Someone even joked that I was blessed after observing the various people and said he would stick to me cos I'm a lucky talisman. =P Indeed, so far, my four ICTs have been relatively relaxed, especially in comparison to the infantry people who had to "chiong sua" and we were all thankful to be signallers. Hope this will continue in the future!
Anyway, realised I really don't like combat rations now, even though the menu has certainly improved and there is quite a variety of meals (known as entrees lol, though nothing like the good food I've been eating over the year), including Peranakan, Vietnamese and Burmese lol. I had teriyaki chicken pasta and claypot rice with yam and chicken which were fairly decent I suppose compared to the past haha. Did a little bit of reading during the exercise cos some brought books and I read something about "Practising the Power of Now", which was fairly interesting and it was about meditation and spiritual enlightenment although parts were pretty abstract and I thought it was quite true that often the problems we face are self-created due to our imaginary fear of the future and the burdens of the past when we should instead focus on the joy of the present. Shall share some tips in my next post =)
The first week passed by quickly cos the lessons were generally relaxed as usual and we escaped from the route march cos it was raining so that was good! Cohesion Day last Friday was fun though (and it was short so that was even better) as we played water games and I realised it's been a really long time since I swam and it's something I enjoy though I need to quickly get into shape soon haha cos otherwise paiseh. =P IPPT on Sat sucked and I expected it after barely running during the last 10 months and also was tired and not in the right frame of mind. I'll be back with a vengeance though, just realised I missed out on silver by 4 seconds in Jan so I wanna go back and not just clear it but do it in style =p
That's all for now - can't wait for the holidays to start once my ICT ends tmr and it's time for some gaming with Skyrim, Dota 2, Diablo 3, Mass Effect 3, and a whole lot of other big games coming out this holidays and the next few months and also it's really time to catch up on the many people that I've not seen for months and take stock of what happened this year and looking forward to 2012. It's time for a shake-up to my life! =)
For a starter, I'm almost at the end of my 4th high-key ICT (from 22nd Nov to 2nd Dec) which passed by relatively quickly except for this Mon to Wed where we had our brigade exercise and time passed excruciatingly slowly... But I'm blessed cos I wasn't given a specific role (was a spare) so I kept a low profile and even though it rained everyday I was either in shelter in the 5-tonner or in buildings so I didn't get wet which was our main concern haha. We went to ITI (at Jurong Camp 2) on first day for a short while before going to Tanjong Gul Camp which is probably one of the most ulu places in Singapore and were there for a day before we relocated again finally to Murai Urban Training Facility (never knew there was such a place) and that was a really good place to be located in cos we manned comms in an air-con room and could sleep in air-con comfort (though it was too cold at times esp at night) and I managed to dodge arrows accidentally, including one where I was eating prata so another person from the spare team was chosen to replace someone who was in a team located in a very hot location. Someone even joked that I was blessed after observing the various people and said he would stick to me cos I'm a lucky talisman. =P Indeed, so far, my four ICTs have been relatively relaxed, especially in comparison to the infantry people who had to "chiong sua" and we were all thankful to be signallers. Hope this will continue in the future!
Anyway, realised I really don't like combat rations now, even though the menu has certainly improved and there is quite a variety of meals (known as entrees lol, though nothing like the good food I've been eating over the year), including Peranakan, Vietnamese and Burmese lol. I had teriyaki chicken pasta and claypot rice with yam and chicken which were fairly decent I suppose compared to the past haha. Did a little bit of reading during the exercise cos some brought books and I read something about "Practising the Power of Now", which was fairly interesting and it was about meditation and spiritual enlightenment although parts were pretty abstract and I thought it was quite true that often the problems we face are self-created due to our imaginary fear of the future and the burdens of the past when we should instead focus on the joy of the present. Shall share some tips in my next post =)
The first week passed by quickly cos the lessons were generally relaxed as usual and we escaped from the route march cos it was raining so that was good! Cohesion Day last Friday was fun though (and it was short so that was even better) as we played water games and I realised it's been a really long time since I swam and it's something I enjoy though I need to quickly get into shape soon haha cos otherwise paiseh. =P IPPT on Sat sucked and I expected it after barely running during the last 10 months and also was tired and not in the right frame of mind. I'll be back with a vengeance though, just realised I missed out on silver by 4 seconds in Jan so I wanna go back and not just clear it but do it in style =p
That's all for now - can't wait for the holidays to start once my ICT ends tmr and it's time for some gaming with Skyrim, Dota 2, Diablo 3, Mass Effect 3, and a whole lot of other big games coming out this holidays and the next few months and also it's really time to catch up on the many people that I've not seen for months and take stock of what happened this year and looking forward to 2012. It's time for a shake-up to my life! =)
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Eat, Shop, Travel, Chill
Shall try to quickly update my life over the last 5 months based on the 4 main areas in my title post.
(a) Eat - simple reviews/thoughts about the many eateries that I've visited. (1) Auntie Kim's (around Thomson area) - decent but I just think I'm not a fan of Korean food. Don't fancy kimchi and probably what I like best are the salads that tend to be a feature in most Korean restaurants. (2) Ice Cream Chefs - nice franchise and can't go too wrong with ice-cream from here (3) Garibaldi - Italian restaurant near Bras Basah/City Hall area. Pretty good food maybe slightly pricey (about $70 per pax) and quite nice ambience. Enjoyed the focaccia with the olive oil and tried risotto for the first time but not quite a fan of it probably cos the rice was quite thick and hard. Some of the other dishes were quite enjoyable though such as wagyu beef carpaccio. (4) Roma Deli's (at Shaw Centre) - vegetarian place but can't say that I fancy the food haha, or at least the dish that I had which was some seafood pasta. (5) V8 Cafe (at Bugis Junction) - not to my taste. (6) Shokudo (at Bugis Junction) - Nice! Pretty affordable even for students and I liked the pizza and dessert there. Wouldn't mind going there again. (7) Soup Spoon (at Ion Orchard) - quite nice salad and soup there. (8) Bakerzin (at Novena) - didn't like the seafood pasta that I had but the salad was decent. (9) Vegan Burg (beside Eunos MRT) - vegetarian place that was in the mould of a fast-food restaurant and I quite enjoyed it. Not many decent vegetarian places around I think...(10) Potato Depot (at Raffles City) - quite nice and pretty affordable. =) As the name suggests, all the dishes contain potatoes with a variety of toppings/ingredients to match it. (11) Ricciotti Italian Deli and Pastry - quite liked the salads there but ambience not great for me. (12) Hai Tian Lou (at Pan Pacific Hotel) - definitely one of the best Chinese restaurants in Singapore. (13) Sabai Fine Thai on the Bay (near Fullerton Bay Hotel) - very good food imo and decent price (for that quality). The owner was friendly and offered good advice on the food and I liked the ambience. (14) Mr. Curry (at Marina Square) - overpriced and nothing that was decent to me. Nuff said. (15) Hei She Hui (at Vivocity) - very nice dim sum and I liked the drinks they have to offer. (16) Mad for Garlic (at Suntec) - very nice variety of food which obviously contains garlic and quite decently priced. (17) Bistro Soori (at Teck Lim Road) - OMG good! The wagyu beef cheeks were awesome and overall the quality of food and pricing was definitely worth the trouble to go there (it's almost always fully booked). (18) Peony Jade (at Keppel Club) - set meal was disappointing and foie gras infused with wine meant that it killed my favourite dish. For the price, definitely not worth it and I didn't even recall any dish which excited me or made me feel satisfied. (19) Barcelos (at Nex) - decent food at good price. (20) Your Woul (at Goldhill Centre, near Novena) - Korean place which was quite decent and seems like a lot of people like it. Again I'm not blown away by Korean food but it's pretty nice. (21) Salad Stop (at Novena Square) - they serve nice salads! (22) P.S. Cafe (at Paragon) - decent food, but wasn't blown away. Again, salad was nice - I've been eating a lot of salads haha. (23) Men-Ichi (at NEX) - surprisingly pretty good food at very affordable price! Ramen was good! (24) Paradise Dynasty (at Ion Orchard) - tried their Xiao Long Baos which were very exotic cos there are 8 with a variety of flavours and fancy colours (has black sesame, cheese). Not every flavour went down well with me though but it's an interesting experience. (25) Kuriya Dining (at Great World City) - very good food, perhaps even on par with the posher Kuriya Penthouse but we didn't eat enough to determine that. (26) Spizzico (at UE Square) - good Italian food at decent price. (27) Yum Cha (at Serangoon Garden Country Club) - decent dim sum (28) Spize (at Simpang Bedok) - popular hangout for many to chill and it's decent simple fare. (29) Fat Boys (at Thomson area) - interesting place where you can design your own burgers - quite cool! Decent price also and decent taste. No ambience lah haha. (30) Sun and Moon Dining (at CHIJMES) - have been there before a few times but we decided to try out some new dishes and they were generally very good. Definitely a good place to try out for anyone. (31) Melt-the-World Cafe (at Pan Pacific Hotel) - priciest buffet I've eaten (about $76 per pax after discount) and I can't say I'm blown away by it at that price. The food is nice though certainly and I love the ice-cream too. If you have time to sit down and can eat a lot, you'll enjoy this but for me it was just ok. (32) Kinki restaurant (around Fullerton Bay Hotel) - nothing kinky about this place at all haha but the food is very nice (about $70 per pax) and I like the view of the bayfrom where we were sitting. Waitress was very friendly and good with recommendations and the funniest thing was her face when I ordered a mocktail called "Doraemon Cream". (33) Au Petit Salut (around Dempsey area) - very nice French cuisine and the foie gras was even better than what I normally enjoy. Loved the dessert also which had a variety of texture and taste. Nice ambience but difficult to get to the place unless you drive (or cab there). (about $120 per pax) (34) No Signboard Seafood (around Geylang) - ok but not blown away by it. (35) Ippudo (at Mandarin Hotel) - very popular place that has always been crowded everytime we walk pass and it was again crowded. Food was nice, price was decent, but not awesome enough to warrant my time queueing (rarely anything is worth my time queueing for). (36) Azur (at Crowne Plaza Hotel) - tried their buffet which was ok but not blown away. Decent food and I think people just enjoy going to the airport to chill so it's a nice place. (37) Ramen Monster (at Velocity) - Ramen was just ok, gyoza not great. (38) Barnacles (at Shangri-La Hotel, Sentosa)- tried the grilled seafood platter there and it was quite decent, though not awesome considering the price (about $70 per pax). Realised I don't really appreciate lobsters as much as I should considering the price haha. (39) Yan Ting (at St. Regis Hotel)- posh dim sum at about $70 per pax but it was quite tasty although the desserts were a disappointment. (40) Akira (around Havelock area) - went with Jon and co. for their buffet lunch there and it was decent considering the price (about $25 after using UOB card) (41) Cold Stone Creamery (at Orchard Central) - very nice ice-cream and I loved the Strawberry Banana Rendezvous! (42) Lerk Thai (at White Sands) - was ages since I last ate there and I thought I'd try there just before my trip to Bangkok. Wasn't great imo and not great variety which was the feedback I gave to them also. (43) Saboten (at Changi Airport Terminal 1) - quite expensive meal but I suppose at the airport the prices are inflated. Liked their free-flow salad though but the main stuff which were the fried stuff weren't awesome. (44) Ling Zhi (at Liat Towers) - vegetarian fine dining, which is probably quite rare. Tried their set menu (looks like no. 3 from their website) and some of the dishes were decent but I didn't fancy the noodles cos it didn't look appetising and didn't taste great also.
(b) Shop - spent probably close to 10k in the first half of 2011, much more than any of my previous years as I underwent some major revamp of my wardrobe and learnt a lot more about fashion in terms of choosing patterns (ditching my usual stripes for colours, chequers, and other fancy stuff), colour matching, materials/fabribs, cutting, fitting, trimmings, details, and also expanding my array of pants (probably more than 15 now, including various work pants in colours such as gold, silver, khaki, and in various shades of brown, grey, apart from the boring black I used to wear), shoes (more than 15 including loafers, sandals, sneakers, working shoes in a variety of colours such as tan, shiny black, white), and belts (about 10, including some reversible belts which were fascinating to me), in addition to the shirts which tend to be my areas of focus last time. Also made 2 new pairs of spectacles involving the classic look and the clean-cut look and coloured my hair.
For sure, the changes brought about much speculation about what's happening to my life and why the sudden change in dressing sense but no, it's not because I'm attached nor am chasing anyone but because I'm bored with life and just enjoy looking better and feeling better. Certainly I would say it's been a change for the better, with many compliments from students (past and present) and colleagues about the improved fashion sense and fresh look, which the credit must go to Da Jie for her fashion advice. =) Of course there will be that 1 or 2 detractors but hey you can't please everyone so I'll just heck care people who mean nothing to me.
(c) Travel - (1) Bintan Trip in Mar - stayed at the Angsana Resort which was quite nice and we had a room with sea-view. Pity that no one seems to be around to play volleyball / water polo though so we just swam and spent most of our time chilling in the rooms playing Monopoly Deal haha. Enjoyed an awesome and cheap meal at Aneka seafood restaurant which I'd highly recommend. Also ate at "The Cove" which was at the neighbouring (and very posh) Banyan Tree Resort and the food was fantastic and well worth the $100 per pax. Very nice ambience also and quiet. Went for foot massage at a branch of Martha Tilaar, which seems to be quite a big company in Indonesia.(2) Bangkok Trip in Jun - stayed at Pullman Hotel, which is a very nice (5-star) hotel that is also quite near to the shopping areas, namely Siam Paragon and Central World. There were plenty of places to shop at though and it would take ages to cover everything there, esp for girls. When we got past customs we passed by this tour agency booth and they offered a good deal which amounted to about $10 per pax for a half-day tour with a personal driver and tour guide. Probably the bad thing was that the tour guide turned out to be not really good at conversing in English and she was quite bad at explaining stuff so that was a dampener but well for $10 I guess we couldn't expect too much? There were some pretty good tour guides though that we saw so I wouldn't discourage anyone from avoiding the guided tours there but just that you gotta be more selective haha. Anyway we took a trip to some temples (including Wat Po, which is supposed to be a well-known place) and the palace. Note that proper dressing is important and by that we are talking about no sleeveless tops and shorts and they had a lot of other restrictions but those are the main things. Of course there are many people who are willing to help, at a price, outside the palace by selling or even renting clothings so as to fulfil the criteria for going to the palace. The guards will actually check quite thoroughly so don't think you can smoke them! Some of the interesting things to do there were to take the various forms of transport there, such as the taxis including the famous tuk-tuks (the good thing is generally it's quite cheap and it increases by 1 baht (4 cents) which is not painful at all!), the train (known as BTS, v. similar to our MRT) and even motorcycles (just the 1 time which was v interesting but dangerous cos they don't even provide helmets!). Visited the famous Chatuchak market (it's actually spelt as Jatujak market and is known as JJ Market from the road signs there) and it's really HUGE. It would probably be a youngster's heaven cos of the great variety of things there and the good thing was that unlike our big pasar malams which tend to have quite a few repeated stores, JJ Market had many unique stores which means more things to buy. Bought some stuff there after some careful picking cos quality and style of clothes is important nowadays but if you want to spam t-shirts this would be a good place. Also recommended if you like all the jewellery kind of stuff! Went to some great eating places such as Lebua State Hotel's Sirocco Sky Bar which is situated on the 63rd floor of the hotel and offers a great view of Bangkok. The hotel itself looked surprisingly plain considering it's a 6-star hotel but the food at the Sky Bar was just awesome - truely fine dining with the taste and texture of all the fusion dishes that they prepared. Also ate at this place called "Baan Khanitha Thai Cuisine" which served very tasty food at an affordable price. It had a nice homely setting (btw "Baan" means home) and has won more than 10 consecutive awards for their food and definitely strongly recommended by me as well. Went to this place called "Hapa Spa" for some aromatherapy and facial treatment and they provided good services though it was kinda ulu and difficult to get to. (3) Phuket Trip in Jul - went over the long weekend (due to Youth Day)and travelled around the island mainly by a rented car, which is a very good form of travel due to the convenience and it's also not too expensive. Had a hard time driving around initially though, no thanks to the terrible maps which didn't show a lot of the roads and the road signs with the English words in font 8 size so there were quite a few occasions where we missed turns and had to make a big round cos there were quite a few one way roads, esp in Phuket Town). Had our first meal at this place called "Raya Thai" which took us like forever to find it but it was worth it cos they served pretty good food, esp their crab in coconut milk which was awesome and cheap. Then travelled to Avista Resort and Spa at Kata Beach to check-in before going out for dinner at a floating restaurant at "Kruvit Raft". It was again difficult to get there but the guy at the concierge gave really good instructions and his timing was spot-on which made it easier to navigate. You have to take a short boat ride from Laem Hin Pier and there are a few restaurants there (3 I think) so either tell them the name or apparently it is number 1. The seafood there was really good and I enjoyed the black pepper crab and clams though not so much the garoupa, not that it wasn't nice - it was v fresh actually but I realised I'm not a fan of that. Second day travelled around the southern part of Phuket, going to some of the view points to look at the scenery and then to Chalong Bay before going to the very popular Patong Beach for massage and a good dinner at the "Baan Kamnan Restaurant". Headed to Phuket Fantasea to catch their special night show (the place is actually a theme park) which was quite interesting but just a pity I didn't understand some of the cultural significance of the dances. On the last day, went for jet skiing for the first time and later parasailing and the jet skiing was cool though there were 2 dangerous moments when I went quite close to someone who was snorkeling v far out and also a rock which was hidden by the waves. Quite expensive sports I must say but I suppose it's ok for the experience though I don't need to do them again. =) After checking out we went to Patong Beach area for some shopping at Jungceylon and then had a really good massage at "Bali Hai" before a scary experience of chionging to the airport amidst busy traffic and nearly missing the flight back because we only reached the airport 25 min before the flight. Thankfully we were allowed to check-in probably because there was no check-in luggage so after all the running we finally caught the flight back. =p
(d) Chill - (1) Feb 12th - Caroline's birthday party and good to see her and some of the others in her clique whom I've not seen for some time. Nice Minnie Mouse theme haha. Sent off Liju earlier in the day before the party. (2) Feb 14th - Friendship day - met up with YH for dinner at Roma Deli's before walking around Plaza Singapura and catching "Black Swan" which was an excellent movie and it made sense to watch with someone who's into literature and can appreciate the movie. Certainly a highly recommended movie and Natalie Portman well deserved her Oscar for her role. =) (3) Feb 19th - Meet-up with the SRP people for dinner at Bugis Junction and went to V8 Cafe and Shokudo. Always fun to see and crap with them. (4) Feb 26th - Karaoke with Jon and co. - had a sore throat actually but on the way to recovery and surprsingly I was quite pleased with my singing heh. Funny cos I was choosing all the funkier and newer songs while they chose ancient songs like those from Teresa Teng. =p (5) Mar 28th - Anqi's concert at the Esplanade - well technically it's not her concert but for her NUS Symphonic Band. Decent I'd say - can't say I'm a huge fan of concerts even though I've attended many to support people haha. Was busy commenting on the dressing of the conductors and looking at their shoes also lol. (6) Apr 17th - 10S417 Party - borrowed Da Jie's place to host the kids and it was certainly a very meaningful and fun day as we prepared a variety of things for them. From buying the ingredients to preparing the food (learnt that cutting apples and grapes weren't as simple as I thought =p) and my main contribution was to the waldorf salad, to buying games (even bought a WII Guitar Heroes Band set to play), gifts (for best-dressed, highest score in trivia quiz), to buying a cake and even designing my very-own 10S417 rainbow t-shirt to suit our Rainbow theme, it was a really meaningful thing to do which the kids were surprised and appreciative about. When I reflect about my teaching life, this is one event that would certainly be a memory I treasure. (7) May 6th - WII Party and we played Guitar Heroes and it was a lot of fun to play together as a band. We were crapping about and joking about a name for our band, which was called the LJ Bros. It came about cos Da Jie was thinking of using our initials to come up with something so after me and my bro, she said LJ and we all laughed then decided to just stick with it. (8) May 7th - Kejin's Birthday Surprise - went to White Sands for consultation and then met up with some of the others in the class to go down to Kejin's place to surprise her. Her house is HUGE!!! 4 storeys if you include the little basement. (9) May 26th - Karaoke with MJC friends at Crystabelle - same old same old I guess which admittedly I've found getting rather boring because too often I hear the same songs so the entire night I chose to sing purely English songs and songs which are unlikely to have been heard by my group like the newer English songs and those from Linkin Park. (10) Jun 16th - attended this meeting for singles at the Malted Milk around Mohamed Sultan Road which was a first for me and I was tagging along. Really didn't want to go but just followed to see how it's like. Ended up talking almost solely to guys hahaha and good thing some of them were quite funny but really I just don't like such events. Nevertheless it was a different experience and I guess it was just exposure to learn how to talk to people since I have problems doing that especially with strangers heh.
Ok, that's as much as I can recall for now though missed out on the details. I REALLY should be updating more often so that I can remind myself of some of these memories years down the road. Updates on school and thoughts on teaching sometime later this week. So many things to do but so little time, sigh!
(a) Eat - simple reviews/thoughts about the many eateries that I've visited. (1) Auntie Kim's (around Thomson area) - decent but I just think I'm not a fan of Korean food. Don't fancy kimchi and probably what I like best are the salads that tend to be a feature in most Korean restaurants. (2) Ice Cream Chefs - nice franchise and can't go too wrong with ice-cream from here (3) Garibaldi - Italian restaurant near Bras Basah/City Hall area. Pretty good food maybe slightly pricey (about $70 per pax) and quite nice ambience. Enjoyed the focaccia with the olive oil and tried risotto for the first time but not quite a fan of it probably cos the rice was quite thick and hard. Some of the other dishes were quite enjoyable though such as wagyu beef carpaccio. (4) Roma Deli's (at Shaw Centre) - vegetarian place but can't say that I fancy the food haha, or at least the dish that I had which was some seafood pasta. (5) V8 Cafe (at Bugis Junction) - not to my taste. (6) Shokudo (at Bugis Junction) - Nice! Pretty affordable even for students and I liked the pizza and dessert there. Wouldn't mind going there again. (7) Soup Spoon (at Ion Orchard) - quite nice salad and soup there. (8) Bakerzin (at Novena) - didn't like the seafood pasta that I had but the salad was decent. (9) Vegan Burg (beside Eunos MRT) - vegetarian place that was in the mould of a fast-food restaurant and I quite enjoyed it. Not many decent vegetarian places around I think...(10) Potato Depot (at Raffles City) - quite nice and pretty affordable. =) As the name suggests, all the dishes contain potatoes with a variety of toppings/ingredients to match it. (11) Ricciotti Italian Deli and Pastry - quite liked the salads there but ambience not great for me. (12) Hai Tian Lou (at Pan Pacific Hotel) - definitely one of the best Chinese restaurants in Singapore. (13) Sabai Fine Thai on the Bay (near Fullerton Bay Hotel) - very good food imo and decent price (for that quality). The owner was friendly and offered good advice on the food and I liked the ambience. (14) Mr. Curry (at Marina Square) - overpriced and nothing that was decent to me. Nuff said. (15) Hei She Hui (at Vivocity) - very nice dim sum and I liked the drinks they have to offer. (16) Mad for Garlic (at Suntec) - very nice variety of food which obviously contains garlic and quite decently priced. (17) Bistro Soori (at Teck Lim Road) - OMG good! The wagyu beef cheeks were awesome and overall the quality of food and pricing was definitely worth the trouble to go there (it's almost always fully booked). (18) Peony Jade (at Keppel Club) - set meal was disappointing and foie gras infused with wine meant that it killed my favourite dish. For the price, definitely not worth it and I didn't even recall any dish which excited me or made me feel satisfied. (19) Barcelos (at Nex) - decent food at good price. (20) Your Woul (at Goldhill Centre, near Novena) - Korean place which was quite decent and seems like a lot of people like it. Again I'm not blown away by Korean food but it's pretty nice. (21) Salad Stop (at Novena Square) - they serve nice salads! (22) P.S. Cafe (at Paragon) - decent food, but wasn't blown away. Again, salad was nice - I've been eating a lot of salads haha. (23) Men-Ichi (at NEX) - surprisingly pretty good food at very affordable price! Ramen was good! (24) Paradise Dynasty (at Ion Orchard) - tried their Xiao Long Baos which were very exotic cos there are 8 with a variety of flavours and fancy colours (has black sesame, cheese). Not every flavour went down well with me though but it's an interesting experience. (25) Kuriya Dining (at Great World City) - very good food, perhaps even on par with the posher Kuriya Penthouse but we didn't eat enough to determine that. (26) Spizzico (at UE Square) - good Italian food at decent price. (27) Yum Cha (at Serangoon Garden Country Club) - decent dim sum (28) Spize (at Simpang Bedok) - popular hangout for many to chill and it's decent simple fare. (29) Fat Boys (at Thomson area) - interesting place where you can design your own burgers - quite cool! Decent price also and decent taste. No ambience lah haha. (30) Sun and Moon Dining (at CHIJMES) - have been there before a few times but we decided to try out some new dishes and they were generally very good. Definitely a good place to try out for anyone. (31) Melt-the-World Cafe (at Pan Pacific Hotel) - priciest buffet I've eaten (about $76 per pax after discount) and I can't say I'm blown away by it at that price. The food is nice though certainly and I love the ice-cream too. If you have time to sit down and can eat a lot, you'll enjoy this but for me it was just ok. (32) Kinki restaurant (around Fullerton Bay Hotel) - nothing kinky about this place at all haha but the food is very nice (about $70 per pax) and I like the view of the bayfrom where we were sitting. Waitress was very friendly and good with recommendations and the funniest thing was her face when I ordered a mocktail called "Doraemon Cream". (33) Au Petit Salut (around Dempsey area) - very nice French cuisine and the foie gras was even better than what I normally enjoy. Loved the dessert also which had a variety of texture and taste. Nice ambience but difficult to get to the place unless you drive (or cab there). (about $120 per pax) (34) No Signboard Seafood (around Geylang) - ok but not blown away by it. (35) Ippudo (at Mandarin Hotel) - very popular place that has always been crowded everytime we walk pass and it was again crowded. Food was nice, price was decent, but not awesome enough to warrant my time queueing (rarely anything is worth my time queueing for). (36) Azur (at Crowne Plaza Hotel) - tried their buffet which was ok but not blown away. Decent food and I think people just enjoy going to the airport to chill so it's a nice place. (37) Ramen Monster (at Velocity) - Ramen was just ok, gyoza not great. (38) Barnacles (at Shangri-La Hotel, Sentosa)- tried the grilled seafood platter there and it was quite decent, though not awesome considering the price (about $70 per pax). Realised I don't really appreciate lobsters as much as I should considering the price haha. (39) Yan Ting (at St. Regis Hotel)- posh dim sum at about $70 per pax but it was quite tasty although the desserts were a disappointment. (40) Akira (around Havelock area) - went with Jon and co. for their buffet lunch there and it was decent considering the price (about $25 after using UOB card) (41) Cold Stone Creamery (at Orchard Central) - very nice ice-cream and I loved the Strawberry Banana Rendezvous! (42) Lerk Thai (at White Sands) - was ages since I last ate there and I thought I'd try there just before my trip to Bangkok. Wasn't great imo and not great variety which was the feedback I gave to them also. (43) Saboten (at Changi Airport Terminal 1) - quite expensive meal but I suppose at the airport the prices are inflated. Liked their free-flow salad though but the main stuff which were the fried stuff weren't awesome. (44) Ling Zhi (at Liat Towers) - vegetarian fine dining, which is probably quite rare. Tried their set menu (looks like no. 3 from their website) and some of the dishes were decent but I didn't fancy the noodles cos it didn't look appetising and didn't taste great also.
(b) Shop - spent probably close to 10k in the first half of 2011, much more than any of my previous years as I underwent some major revamp of my wardrobe and learnt a lot more about fashion in terms of choosing patterns (ditching my usual stripes for colours, chequers, and other fancy stuff), colour matching, materials/fabribs, cutting, fitting, trimmings, details, and also expanding my array of pants (probably more than 15 now, including various work pants in colours such as gold, silver, khaki, and in various shades of brown, grey, apart from the boring black I used to wear), shoes (more than 15 including loafers, sandals, sneakers, working shoes in a variety of colours such as tan, shiny black, white), and belts (about 10, including some reversible belts which were fascinating to me), in addition to the shirts which tend to be my areas of focus last time. Also made 2 new pairs of spectacles involving the classic look and the clean-cut look and coloured my hair.
For sure, the changes brought about much speculation about what's happening to my life and why the sudden change in dressing sense but no, it's not because I'm attached nor am chasing anyone but because I'm bored with life and just enjoy looking better and feeling better. Certainly I would say it's been a change for the better, with many compliments from students (past and present) and colleagues about the improved fashion sense and fresh look, which the credit must go to Da Jie for her fashion advice. =) Of course there will be that 1 or 2 detractors but hey you can't please everyone so I'll just heck care people who mean nothing to me.
(c) Travel - (1) Bintan Trip in Mar - stayed at the Angsana Resort which was quite nice and we had a room with sea-view. Pity that no one seems to be around to play volleyball / water polo though so we just swam and spent most of our time chilling in the rooms playing Monopoly Deal haha. Enjoyed an awesome and cheap meal at Aneka seafood restaurant which I'd highly recommend. Also ate at "The Cove" which was at the neighbouring (and very posh) Banyan Tree Resort and the food was fantastic and well worth the $100 per pax. Very nice ambience also and quiet. Went for foot massage at a branch of Martha Tilaar, which seems to be quite a big company in Indonesia.(2) Bangkok Trip in Jun - stayed at Pullman Hotel, which is a very nice (5-star) hotel that is also quite near to the shopping areas, namely Siam Paragon and Central World. There were plenty of places to shop at though and it would take ages to cover everything there, esp for girls. When we got past customs we passed by this tour agency booth and they offered a good deal which amounted to about $10 per pax for a half-day tour with a personal driver and tour guide. Probably the bad thing was that the tour guide turned out to be not really good at conversing in English and she was quite bad at explaining stuff so that was a dampener but well for $10 I guess we couldn't expect too much? There were some pretty good tour guides though that we saw so I wouldn't discourage anyone from avoiding the guided tours there but just that you gotta be more selective haha. Anyway we took a trip to some temples (including Wat Po, which is supposed to be a well-known place) and the palace. Note that proper dressing is important and by that we are talking about no sleeveless tops and shorts and they had a lot of other restrictions but those are the main things. Of course there are many people who are willing to help, at a price, outside the palace by selling or even renting clothings so as to fulfil the criteria for going to the palace. The guards will actually check quite thoroughly so don't think you can smoke them! Some of the interesting things to do there were to take the various forms of transport there, such as the taxis including the famous tuk-tuks (the good thing is generally it's quite cheap and it increases by 1 baht (4 cents) which is not painful at all!), the train (known as BTS, v. similar to our MRT) and even motorcycles (just the 1 time which was v interesting but dangerous cos they don't even provide helmets!). Visited the famous Chatuchak market (it's actually spelt as Jatujak market and is known as JJ Market from the road signs there) and it's really HUGE. It would probably be a youngster's heaven cos of the great variety of things there and the good thing was that unlike our big pasar malams which tend to have quite a few repeated stores, JJ Market had many unique stores which means more things to buy. Bought some stuff there after some careful picking cos quality and style of clothes is important nowadays but if you want to spam t-shirts this would be a good place. Also recommended if you like all the jewellery kind of stuff! Went to some great eating places such as Lebua State Hotel's Sirocco Sky Bar which is situated on the 63rd floor of the hotel and offers a great view of Bangkok. The hotel itself looked surprisingly plain considering it's a 6-star hotel but the food at the Sky Bar was just awesome - truely fine dining with the taste and texture of all the fusion dishes that they prepared. Also ate at this place called "Baan Khanitha Thai Cuisine" which served very tasty food at an affordable price. It had a nice homely setting (btw "Baan" means home) and has won more than 10 consecutive awards for their food and definitely strongly recommended by me as well. Went to this place called "Hapa Spa" for some aromatherapy and facial treatment and they provided good services though it was kinda ulu and difficult to get to. (3) Phuket Trip in Jul - went over the long weekend (due to Youth Day)and travelled around the island mainly by a rented car, which is a very good form of travel due to the convenience and it's also not too expensive. Had a hard time driving around initially though, no thanks to the terrible maps which didn't show a lot of the roads and the road signs with the English words in font 8 size so there were quite a few occasions where we missed turns and had to make a big round cos there were quite a few one way roads, esp in Phuket Town). Had our first meal at this place called "Raya Thai" which took us like forever to find it but it was worth it cos they served pretty good food, esp their crab in coconut milk which was awesome and cheap. Then travelled to Avista Resort and Spa at Kata Beach to check-in before going out for dinner at a floating restaurant at "Kruvit Raft". It was again difficult to get there but the guy at the concierge gave really good instructions and his timing was spot-on which made it easier to navigate. You have to take a short boat ride from Laem Hin Pier and there are a few restaurants there (3 I think) so either tell them the name or apparently it is number 1. The seafood there was really good and I enjoyed the black pepper crab and clams though not so much the garoupa, not that it wasn't nice - it was v fresh actually but I realised I'm not a fan of that. Second day travelled around the southern part of Phuket, going to some of the view points to look at the scenery and then to Chalong Bay before going to the very popular Patong Beach for massage and a good dinner at the "Baan Kamnan Restaurant". Headed to Phuket Fantasea to catch their special night show (the place is actually a theme park) which was quite interesting but just a pity I didn't understand some of the cultural significance of the dances. On the last day, went for jet skiing for the first time and later parasailing and the jet skiing was cool though there were 2 dangerous moments when I went quite close to someone who was snorkeling v far out and also a rock which was hidden by the waves. Quite expensive sports I must say but I suppose it's ok for the experience though I don't need to do them again. =) After checking out we went to Patong Beach area for some shopping at Jungceylon and then had a really good massage at "Bali Hai" before a scary experience of chionging to the airport amidst busy traffic and nearly missing the flight back because we only reached the airport 25 min before the flight. Thankfully we were allowed to check-in probably because there was no check-in luggage so after all the running we finally caught the flight back. =p
(d) Chill - (1) Feb 12th - Caroline's birthday party and good to see her and some of the others in her clique whom I've not seen for some time. Nice Minnie Mouse theme haha. Sent off Liju earlier in the day before the party. (2) Feb 14th - Friendship day - met up with YH for dinner at Roma Deli's before walking around Plaza Singapura and catching "Black Swan" which was an excellent movie and it made sense to watch with someone who's into literature and can appreciate the movie. Certainly a highly recommended movie and Natalie Portman well deserved her Oscar for her role. =) (3) Feb 19th - Meet-up with the SRP people for dinner at Bugis Junction and went to V8 Cafe and Shokudo. Always fun to see and crap with them. (4) Feb 26th - Karaoke with Jon and co. - had a sore throat actually but on the way to recovery and surprsingly I was quite pleased with my singing heh. Funny cos I was choosing all the funkier and newer songs while they chose ancient songs like those from Teresa Teng. =p (5) Mar 28th - Anqi's concert at the Esplanade - well technically it's not her concert but for her NUS Symphonic Band. Decent I'd say - can't say I'm a huge fan of concerts even though I've attended many to support people haha. Was busy commenting on the dressing of the conductors and looking at their shoes also lol. (6) Apr 17th - 10S417 Party - borrowed Da Jie's place to host the kids and it was certainly a very meaningful and fun day as we prepared a variety of things for them. From buying the ingredients to preparing the food (learnt that cutting apples and grapes weren't as simple as I thought =p) and my main contribution was to the waldorf salad, to buying games (even bought a WII Guitar Heroes Band set to play), gifts (for best-dressed, highest score in trivia quiz), to buying a cake and even designing my very-own 10S417 rainbow t-shirt to suit our Rainbow theme, it was a really meaningful thing to do which the kids were surprised and appreciative about. When I reflect about my teaching life, this is one event that would certainly be a memory I treasure. (7) May 6th - WII Party and we played Guitar Heroes and it was a lot of fun to play together as a band. We were crapping about and joking about a name for our band, which was called the LJ Bros. It came about cos Da Jie was thinking of using our initials to come up with something so after me and my bro, she said LJ and we all laughed then decided to just stick with it. (8) May 7th - Kejin's Birthday Surprise - went to White Sands for consultation and then met up with some of the others in the class to go down to Kejin's place to surprise her. Her house is HUGE!!! 4 storeys if you include the little basement. (9) May 26th - Karaoke with MJC friends at Crystabelle - same old same old I guess which admittedly I've found getting rather boring because too often I hear the same songs so the entire night I chose to sing purely English songs and songs which are unlikely to have been heard by my group like the newer English songs and those from Linkin Park. (10) Jun 16th - attended this meeting for singles at the Malted Milk around Mohamed Sultan Road which was a first for me and I was tagging along. Really didn't want to go but just followed to see how it's like. Ended up talking almost solely to guys hahaha and good thing some of them were quite funny but really I just don't like such events. Nevertheless it was a different experience and I guess it was just exposure to learn how to talk to people since I have problems doing that especially with strangers heh.
Ok, that's as much as I can recall for now though missed out on the details. I REALLY should be updating more often so that I can remind myself of some of these memories years down the road. Updates on school and thoughts on teaching sometime later this week. So many things to do but so little time, sigh!
Friday, February 4, 2011
End of Reservist; (My)Space 2011; 08S201 Outing; Happy CNY!
Happy CNY to all my readers!
Reservist updates - (1) Day 2 (18th Jan) - Stupid me wasted money on cabbing cos I was trying out a new route to camp but didn't do enough of my homework so when I was at the bus stop that I thought I was supposed to take from and saw that the bus wasn't going to camp, I panicked and took a cab. All I had to do was cross over and take the bus, idiot! Other eventful thing today was our cohesion 4km route march which was literally a stroll in the park as we walked out of camp and along some park connector and that certainly beats walking in camp which was so boring...
(2) Day 3 (19th Jan) - Nothing special in camp - whole day of mainly theory lesson... Met up with da jie for dinner as she gave me updates on her time with my classes and her pep talk to them using guilt treatment hahaha.
(3) Day 4 (20th Jan) - Lessons just a tiny bit more siong today but more interesting also as we set up dipole antennas and some other big antennas like NVIS, Log P, and SQT mast which was quite fun and I kenna suan by the instructor about how I was hammering the picket into the ground cos he said I must be holding a white-collar job outside cos I was just hitting the picket instead of smashing it in haha...
(4) Day 5 (21st Jan) - Theory lessons again...zzz...
(5) Day 6 (22nd Jan) - IPPT at Maju Camp and it was a debacle as the recording machine broke down and quite a few of us had our 2.4km timings wrongly recorded so we contested it and to cut a long story short, we had to chase them for the correct results and even after I had a call finally last Fri to tell me about the correct timing (12:24), the results were not updated till this morning so I just wrote an email to MINDEF cos I'm pretty * with them already though I was diplomatic as ever in my email. This stupid * really put a dampener in what was my best performance by far in terms of points and I felt really good running that day surprisingly considering I had not run since last Jun...
On the way back, I was dropped off at Ang Mo Kio so I went to get a Tip-Top Curry Puff which is nice and finally I also tried out a Taro Milk Tea from Gong Cha since there was no queue after hearing so much about it (and also Koi) and it was pretty ok. It was nice but not out-of-the-world and not exactly cheap so I wouldn't ever be queueing up for that!
Took a short nap when I finally reached home before meeting up with da jie to go visit the CSI Exhibition at the Science Centre, Singapore [that is the proper name in case anyone still thinks it's the Singapore Science Centre =p]. It was fairly interesting and a lot of the ideas can be brought back for our Science Fiesta cos they are simple enough to create and for the students to understand. Learnt some new stuff about blood spatter and other stuff you see on CSI which was quite cool... =)
Then we rushed down to Riverside Point's Brewerkz cos I had an appointment to take my measurements for this shirt company which makes tailor-made shirts and it was cool cos the shirts can be customised right down to the tiniest of details...
After that we went to Dozo at Valley Point along River Valley Road to meet "Mummy" (our colleague also) for dinner and it was another sumptuous dinner of Japanese food though significantly cheaper than my last meal at Kuriya hahaha. I loved the Japanese bread sticks (btw it's free flow ftw!) and their tea was very fragrant also (and it's not the usual green tea but some rose-like stuff). We had their 7-course dinner (apparently they only serve that) for a reasonable price of $70 considering what we had:
(1) Chef's Selection of Assorted Platter - had foei gras, smoked salmon, and I think scallop if I rem correctly
(2)Cold Dish - we each took a different one and shared - Beef Tataki, King Crab Claw Salad, Smoked Duck Breast and all were great though I liked the beef tataki best and it looked the most impressive also.
(3) Side Dish - 2 of us had escargots (my first time eating that!) and 1 had foie gras chawanmushi - I loved the escargots and definitely preferred that over the chawanmushi cos I like to feel the foie gras melting in my mouth rather than having it already infused in the chawanmushi.
(4) Soup - we shared a mushroom soup, crab bisque, and beef consomme and I liked the mushroom soup best followed by the consomme and then the crab bisque cos I didn't really like the coffee taste (it was cappuccino style)
(5) Main Dish - we had beef tenderloin on granite hot stone, baked Atlantic cod fillet, and sushi platter and I think I would've preferred the cod fillet more since I like that and it was quite well done. I didn't really fancy the beef tenderloin cos the leaf in between the meat and the stone got quite burnt at some parts so it was troublesome trying to remove the leaf which spoilt the experience cos I don't like to have a hassle when I eat...
(6) Dessert - we shared a warm chocolate cake, Japanese mochi with green tea ice cream, and an espresso creme brulee. All were great but the chocolate cake takes the cake literally even though I'm usually not a fan of chocolate!
(7) Drinks - had a green apple mocktail (so me!) while the other 2 had a fruity refresher and a grapefruit glory... I didn't quite fancy the other drinks but I suppose it's cos I quite like my mocktail which was sweet =)
Overall a nice quiet place for a meal and it has a nice ambience too so quite a few people went there to celebrate birthdays. It also doesn't have a strict dress code so it's relaxing...
Sunday (23rd Jan) - Gym in the morning with Jon and Liju and felt good! Ended off with some intense abs and some funny butt and thigh exercise which looked kinda strange... Then followed them to Phoon Huat where I bought some jelly powder and jelly moulds cos I wanted to try making some for the festive season! We then went to Newton Hawker Centre for lunch and I liked the coconut - cold and sweet and meaty, best! The XO noodles were kinda overpriced and was ok lah but then again can't expect too much from such a touristy place...
Day 7 and 8 (24th/25th Jan) - Detachment Proficiency Training and then Test which was pretty ok considering that we had some decent training last week (for once!)
Day 9 (26th Jan) - Due to some technical issues, our morning CP deployment was cancelled so we just chilled in the auditorium and slept or throw each other some qian bian wen da ti. =p Had our MR Ceremony in camp at the Spec's mess and I played some foosball which was fun and the table was quite good cos we didn't have much problems of the ball getting stuck which happens some times and I am able to control the ball decently. Went for our cohesion lunch/dinner (it was a weird time at 3+p.m.) at Rasa Istemewa, near Choa Chu Kang, and the food was quite ok though we still wondered about contesting why we had to fork out $16 each for it when we felt that the army should've been the one paying for it in principle.
Day 10 (27th Jan) - Nothing much on the last day except settling admin matters and then it was out-pro! Overall I have to say that it's the best of the 3 high-key ICTs that I've ever had! All we had were lessons and no deployment and everything was done in Stagmont Camp so I couldn't have asked for more. Also made a couple of friends there who are quite nice so hopefully we'll meet up one of these days to go eat =)
Other updates:
Fri (28th Jan) - Finally back to school after a long break and work piling up immediately! Admin Day 2 and things were generally ok though in the morning there were problems with logistics arising from the previous day. The mass dance conducted by the councilors was quite good and the new cohort was quite enthu and obedient also as they followed the steps... Loved the video shown at the end as it was a cliff-hanger to build up the excitment to next week's orientation! Stayed back to watch the kids prepare the setting and rehearse for Principal's event and it was quite funny to see all the props that were made - the spaceship, the rocket propellors, insignia for the Queen and stuff, hahahaha...
Sat (29th Jan) - 08S201 Outing and I met them at Marina Square's Starbucks before proceeding to Hot Pot Culture for buffet lunch. It was quite good actually for about $16 and I quite liked the variety and quality of food (the cai xin is v. nice!) there as well as the ice-cream and chocolate fondue at the end. The kids were ordering like crazy and apparently they wrote the dishes on the slips of paper and then x5, x6, etc and then later we were passing food to each side to try and finish it up...
Christian, as usual, was the joker of the day and he never failed to entertain us throughout the day with his funny punchlines (like his thank you speech where he thanked everyone for taking time off to meet together although some REALLY took their own sweet time to reach hahaha) and stories and for all his nonsense he's actually in commandos so it's super xiong man... Flor was sharing with us her French lessons and apparently Yeon Ju's name sounded like a French vulgar term which got us laughing (though too bad she's away in Imperial College). Then AY found out about my uni days and suddenly the conversation became a session about how competitive I am and joking about how to get tips on doing well in Uni... Went to play pool with them after that and it was fun playing pairs, esp when I was playing better than usual and in the first two games I had many good shots which won us the games. Of course, it wouldn't be funny without the trash talk and crapping and Christian told us about his "dragon guarding the cage" when his shot missed and ended up just outside the pot hence blocking our balls and then when I cleared his ball I said that's called "Slaying the dragon" haha. Lost our last round-robin match after being too cocky and trying some ridiculous shots and then finally hitting the black and white ball in together to lose... Overall had a really good time esp when I've not seen them since last Mar when they collected their results... =)
After that I went to do some shopping at T.M. Lewin and Raoul and spent $800 before going to my aunt's place for reunion dinner...
Sun (30th Jan) - gym then work as I tried to catch up on the work left over from my reservist...
Mon (31st Jan) - (My)Space 2011 started off with a bang with the Principal's event in the hall (due to the rain, but thankfully it was held there cos I think the atmosphere is better) and it was awesome fun, thanks mainly to our star of the show, Ms Lai, who gamely followed the script and made many jokes during her performance and the opening was really cool also with all the props, including the nerf gun at the end which was fun!
Had a really insane day cos after the Principal's event I went off to lecture H1 then consultation for H1 cos there's a test the next day and then lecture H2 (where I played my first chem song cos appropriately they just finished chemical tests for carbonyl compounds before moving onto teach them about carboxylic acids and derivatives). Then settle down to do work for 1 period before helping to do relief teaching, work again plus check on orientation, consultation again, then 3 tut periods in a row... A long day without lunch =( The good thing about my reservist break was that I always got to see the sun on the way there and back and healthy meals at appropriate times but it's tough in school... Anyway, despite the busyness I still very much enjoyed teaching and had fun during the lectures and thanks to my F5 in 10S103 and Jana in 10S417, tutorials were a lot more fun... =)
Tue (1st Feb) - Orientation Day 2 with MMM and things went on fine until we had bad weather in the early afternoon but at least they had time for some decent fun considering that the last few days had been pouring incessantly and also we had a public complaint about our OGL eating on the train and being rude so that kinda spoilt things but otherwise it was good. H1 test was so so, but looks like many will have to be trained properly during the retest cos not enough effort from some of them... Tut with 10S103 felt good and it was funny while enlightening also I hope as I talked to them about the test results and delivered some "hard truths"... Really hope they can deliver soon but at least I do see some improvement in some of them so shall keep my fingers crossed...
Oh, and I made jelly for the first time in my life! It was a really fun experience and it's not that easy cos apparently Konyakku jelly is harder to prepare (there's more to the simple instructions written on the back cover) and I learnt quite a lot such as even basic things like choosing an appropriate pot so that it is easier to pour the mix into the mould without it coagulating too quickly and how the fruits in the mould should be stirred so that they come out nicely when the jelly has coagulated. I also kenna suan cos I never used a can opener in my life prior to today so I was trying to figure out how it worked (it's actually not that obvious, really =p)... In the end it was a decent effort and most of the jelly were pretty tasty and firm so yippee!
Wed (2nd Feb) - Last day of Orientation and we had our Wet Games Finale! Again, we really had to thank for the good weather that lasted just until our finale ended and I was glad to see that everyone had fun without anyone getting hurt. We ran late by about half an hour so I had to run around the field to coordinate with the OGLs and then to the center for the grand finale where I got bombarded with tons of water bombs while telling all our defenders when we should put down the struture and concede defeat so as to finish the event on time... It was absolutely fun though and in the end it was certainly a lot of effort in preparing for something that took like 20-25 min but 10000 water bombs and setting up the field for the finale certainly required everyone to play their part which they did and I was happy to see everyone working together towards the success of orientation and coming up with a fitting end to (My)Space 2011!
Went for our school reunion breakfast after the event where each JC1 OG was paired with a JC2 class as part of the plan to get the JC1s and JC2s to interact with each other to build school spirit and I passed the jelly around to my 10S417 kids as well as some of my ex-students who came back and some of my students from other classes also who had done well in their tests. =)
Finally wrapped things up with a debrief to the OGLs and SC and giving out of survey forms but there are just a couple of things left, which are the revealing of the final results of orientation and also the appreciation lunch for the OGLs and then we can finally close this chapter of our lives! =D
Went home to sleep until reunion dinner cos I was so tired waking up at 5am the last few days for orientation... After dinner I watched Magic's Biggest Secrets Revealed and I really like the show cos it's intellectually challenging to see how people can pull off all those illusions and how elaborate some of the setups can be as well as the sleight of hand tricks involved...
Thu (3rd Feb) - First day of CNY and I slept almost till like 1pm cos I was still tired from school before going out to my grandma's new place (not exactly new but they rented it after selling their flat at Teban Gardens) at Serangoon Central. Then I went to my dad's side, which was typically my uncle's place in Bishan. Spent most of my time at both places watching TV and I watched this show about the legend of Su Can and also Chi Bi. Surprisingly the night ended off with mahjong when my cousin invited me to play with them (her, my other cousin and his fiance) so I did and it was quite fun even with the extremely friendly stakes of 10/20. Nobody won more than 3 tai and in the end it was funny cos I won from all of them but I won a grand total of $2.9 LOL. But it was still nice and for me it's the sense of winning that's important... =)
Fri (4th Feb) - Nothing happening much today cos as usual my visiting is typically done within the first day nowadays so I've been slacking since it is CNY after all but going to my aunt's place later for dinner... Shall take a good rest before working hard tmr!
Reservist updates - (1) Day 2 (18th Jan) - Stupid me wasted money on cabbing cos I was trying out a new route to camp but didn't do enough of my homework so when I was at the bus stop that I thought I was supposed to take from and saw that the bus wasn't going to camp, I panicked and took a cab. All I had to do was cross over and take the bus, idiot! Other eventful thing today was our cohesion 4km route march which was literally a stroll in the park as we walked out of camp and along some park connector and that certainly beats walking in camp which was so boring...
(2) Day 3 (19th Jan) - Nothing special in camp - whole day of mainly theory lesson... Met up with da jie for dinner as she gave me updates on her time with my classes and her pep talk to them using guilt treatment hahaha.
(3) Day 4 (20th Jan) - Lessons just a tiny bit more siong today but more interesting also as we set up dipole antennas and some other big antennas like NVIS, Log P, and SQT mast which was quite fun and I kenna suan by the instructor about how I was hammering the picket into the ground cos he said I must be holding a white-collar job outside cos I was just hitting the picket instead of smashing it in haha...
(4) Day 5 (21st Jan) - Theory lessons again...zzz...
(5) Day 6 (22nd Jan) - IPPT at Maju Camp and it was a debacle as the recording machine broke down and quite a few of us had our 2.4km timings wrongly recorded so we contested it and to cut a long story short, we had to chase them for the correct results and even after I had a call finally last Fri to tell me about the correct timing (12:24), the results were not updated till this morning so I just wrote an email to MINDEF cos I'm pretty * with them already though I was diplomatic as ever in my email. This stupid * really put a dampener in what was my best performance by far in terms of points and I felt really good running that day surprisingly considering I had not run since last Jun...
On the way back, I was dropped off at Ang Mo Kio so I went to get a Tip-Top Curry Puff which is nice and finally I also tried out a Taro Milk Tea from Gong Cha since there was no queue after hearing so much about it (and also Koi) and it was pretty ok. It was nice but not out-of-the-world and not exactly cheap so I wouldn't ever be queueing up for that!
Took a short nap when I finally reached home before meeting up with da jie to go visit the CSI Exhibition at the Science Centre, Singapore [that is the proper name in case anyone still thinks it's the Singapore Science Centre =p]. It was fairly interesting and a lot of the ideas can be brought back for our Science Fiesta cos they are simple enough to create and for the students to understand. Learnt some new stuff about blood spatter and other stuff you see on CSI which was quite cool... =)
Then we rushed down to Riverside Point's Brewerkz cos I had an appointment to take my measurements for this shirt company which makes tailor-made shirts and it was cool cos the shirts can be customised right down to the tiniest of details...
After that we went to Dozo at Valley Point along River Valley Road to meet "Mummy" (our colleague also) for dinner and it was another sumptuous dinner of Japanese food though significantly cheaper than my last meal at Kuriya hahaha. I loved the Japanese bread sticks (btw it's free flow ftw!) and their tea was very fragrant also (and it's not the usual green tea but some rose-like stuff). We had their 7-course dinner (apparently they only serve that) for a reasonable price of $70 considering what we had:
(1) Chef's Selection of Assorted Platter - had foei gras, smoked salmon, and I think scallop if I rem correctly
(2)Cold Dish - we each took a different one and shared - Beef Tataki, King Crab Claw Salad, Smoked Duck Breast and all were great though I liked the beef tataki best and it looked the most impressive also.
(3) Side Dish - 2 of us had escargots (my first time eating that!) and 1 had foie gras chawanmushi - I loved the escargots and definitely preferred that over the chawanmushi cos I like to feel the foie gras melting in my mouth rather than having it already infused in the chawanmushi.
(4) Soup - we shared a mushroom soup, crab bisque, and beef consomme and I liked the mushroom soup best followed by the consomme and then the crab bisque cos I didn't really like the coffee taste (it was cappuccino style)
(5) Main Dish - we had beef tenderloin on granite hot stone, baked Atlantic cod fillet, and sushi platter and I think I would've preferred the cod fillet more since I like that and it was quite well done. I didn't really fancy the beef tenderloin cos the leaf in between the meat and the stone got quite burnt at some parts so it was troublesome trying to remove the leaf which spoilt the experience cos I don't like to have a hassle when I eat...
(6) Dessert - we shared a warm chocolate cake, Japanese mochi with green tea ice cream, and an espresso creme brulee. All were great but the chocolate cake takes the cake literally even though I'm usually not a fan of chocolate!
(7) Drinks - had a green apple mocktail (so me!) while the other 2 had a fruity refresher and a grapefruit glory... I didn't quite fancy the other drinks but I suppose it's cos I quite like my mocktail which was sweet =)
Overall a nice quiet place for a meal and it has a nice ambience too so quite a few people went there to celebrate birthdays. It also doesn't have a strict dress code so it's relaxing...
Sunday (23rd Jan) - Gym in the morning with Jon and Liju and felt good! Ended off with some intense abs and some funny butt and thigh exercise which looked kinda strange... Then followed them to Phoon Huat where I bought some jelly powder and jelly moulds cos I wanted to try making some for the festive season! We then went to Newton Hawker Centre for lunch and I liked the coconut - cold and sweet and meaty, best! The XO noodles were kinda overpriced and was ok lah but then again can't expect too much from such a touristy place...
Day 7 and 8 (24th/25th Jan) - Detachment Proficiency Training and then Test which was pretty ok considering that we had some decent training last week (for once!)
Day 9 (26th Jan) - Due to some technical issues, our morning CP deployment was cancelled so we just chilled in the auditorium and slept or throw each other some qian bian wen da ti. =p Had our MR Ceremony in camp at the Spec's mess and I played some foosball which was fun and the table was quite good cos we didn't have much problems of the ball getting stuck which happens some times and I am able to control the ball decently. Went for our cohesion lunch/dinner (it was a weird time at 3+p.m.) at Rasa Istemewa, near Choa Chu Kang, and the food was quite ok though we still wondered about contesting why we had to fork out $16 each for it when we felt that the army should've been the one paying for it in principle.
Day 10 (27th Jan) - Nothing much on the last day except settling admin matters and then it was out-pro! Overall I have to say that it's the best of the 3 high-key ICTs that I've ever had! All we had were lessons and no deployment and everything was done in Stagmont Camp so I couldn't have asked for more. Also made a couple of friends there who are quite nice so hopefully we'll meet up one of these days to go eat =)
Other updates:
Fri (28th Jan) - Finally back to school after a long break and work piling up immediately! Admin Day 2 and things were generally ok though in the morning there were problems with logistics arising from the previous day. The mass dance conducted by the councilors was quite good and the new cohort was quite enthu and obedient also as they followed the steps... Loved the video shown at the end as it was a cliff-hanger to build up the excitment to next week's orientation! Stayed back to watch the kids prepare the setting and rehearse for Principal's event and it was quite funny to see all the props that were made - the spaceship, the rocket propellors, insignia for the Queen and stuff, hahahaha...
Sat (29th Jan) - 08S201 Outing and I met them at Marina Square's Starbucks before proceeding to Hot Pot Culture for buffet lunch. It was quite good actually for about $16 and I quite liked the variety and quality of food (the cai xin is v. nice!) there as well as the ice-cream and chocolate fondue at the end. The kids were ordering like crazy and apparently they wrote the dishes on the slips of paper and then x5, x6, etc and then later we were passing food to each side to try and finish it up...
Christian, as usual, was the joker of the day and he never failed to entertain us throughout the day with his funny punchlines (like his thank you speech where he thanked everyone for taking time off to meet together although some REALLY took their own sweet time to reach hahaha) and stories and for all his nonsense he's actually in commandos so it's super xiong man... Flor was sharing with us her French lessons and apparently Yeon Ju's name sounded like a French vulgar term which got us laughing (though too bad she's away in Imperial College). Then AY found out about my uni days and suddenly the conversation became a session about how competitive I am and joking about how to get tips on doing well in Uni... Went to play pool with them after that and it was fun playing pairs, esp when I was playing better than usual and in the first two games I had many good shots which won us the games. Of course, it wouldn't be funny without the trash talk and crapping and Christian told us about his "dragon guarding the cage" when his shot missed and ended up just outside the pot hence blocking our balls and then when I cleared his ball I said that's called "Slaying the dragon" haha. Lost our last round-robin match after being too cocky and trying some ridiculous shots and then finally hitting the black and white ball in together to lose... Overall had a really good time esp when I've not seen them since last Mar when they collected their results... =)
After that I went to do some shopping at T.M. Lewin and Raoul and spent $800 before going to my aunt's place for reunion dinner...
Sun (30th Jan) - gym then work as I tried to catch up on the work left over from my reservist...
Mon (31st Jan) - (My)Space 2011 started off with a bang with the Principal's event in the hall (due to the rain, but thankfully it was held there cos I think the atmosphere is better) and it was awesome fun, thanks mainly to our star of the show, Ms Lai, who gamely followed the script and made many jokes during her performance and the opening was really cool also with all the props, including the nerf gun at the end which was fun!
Had a really insane day cos after the Principal's event I went off to lecture H1 then consultation for H1 cos there's a test the next day and then lecture H2 (where I played my first chem song cos appropriately they just finished chemical tests for carbonyl compounds before moving onto teach them about carboxylic acids and derivatives). Then settle down to do work for 1 period before helping to do relief teaching, work again plus check on orientation, consultation again, then 3 tut periods in a row... A long day without lunch =( The good thing about my reservist break was that I always got to see the sun on the way there and back and healthy meals at appropriate times but it's tough in school... Anyway, despite the busyness I still very much enjoyed teaching and had fun during the lectures and thanks to my F5 in 10S103 and Jana in 10S417, tutorials were a lot more fun... =)
Tue (1st Feb) - Orientation Day 2 with MMM and things went on fine until we had bad weather in the early afternoon but at least they had time for some decent fun considering that the last few days had been pouring incessantly and also we had a public complaint about our OGL eating on the train and being rude so that kinda spoilt things but otherwise it was good. H1 test was so so, but looks like many will have to be trained properly during the retest cos not enough effort from some of them... Tut with 10S103 felt good and it was funny while enlightening also I hope as I talked to them about the test results and delivered some "hard truths"... Really hope they can deliver soon but at least I do see some improvement in some of them so shall keep my fingers crossed...
Oh, and I made jelly for the first time in my life! It was a really fun experience and it's not that easy cos apparently Konyakku jelly is harder to prepare (there's more to the simple instructions written on the back cover) and I learnt quite a lot such as even basic things like choosing an appropriate pot so that it is easier to pour the mix into the mould without it coagulating too quickly and how the fruits in the mould should be stirred so that they come out nicely when the jelly has coagulated. I also kenna suan cos I never used a can opener in my life prior to today so I was trying to figure out how it worked (it's actually not that obvious, really =p)... In the end it was a decent effort and most of the jelly were pretty tasty and firm so yippee!
Wed (2nd Feb) - Last day of Orientation and we had our Wet Games Finale! Again, we really had to thank for the good weather that lasted just until our finale ended and I was glad to see that everyone had fun without anyone getting hurt. We ran late by about half an hour so I had to run around the field to coordinate with the OGLs and then to the center for the grand finale where I got bombarded with tons of water bombs while telling all our defenders when we should put down the struture and concede defeat so as to finish the event on time... It was absolutely fun though and in the end it was certainly a lot of effort in preparing for something that took like 20-25 min but 10000 water bombs and setting up the field for the finale certainly required everyone to play their part which they did and I was happy to see everyone working together towards the success of orientation and coming up with a fitting end to (My)Space 2011!
Went for our school reunion breakfast after the event where each JC1 OG was paired with a JC2 class as part of the plan to get the JC1s and JC2s to interact with each other to build school spirit and I passed the jelly around to my 10S417 kids as well as some of my ex-students who came back and some of my students from other classes also who had done well in their tests. =)
Finally wrapped things up with a debrief to the OGLs and SC and giving out of survey forms but there are just a couple of things left, which are the revealing of the final results of orientation and also the appreciation lunch for the OGLs and then we can finally close this chapter of our lives! =D
Went home to sleep until reunion dinner cos I was so tired waking up at 5am the last few days for orientation... After dinner I watched Magic's Biggest Secrets Revealed and I really like the show cos it's intellectually challenging to see how people can pull off all those illusions and how elaborate some of the setups can be as well as the sleight of hand tricks involved...
Thu (3rd Feb) - First day of CNY and I slept almost till like 1pm cos I was still tired from school before going out to my grandma's new place (not exactly new but they rented it after selling their flat at Teban Gardens) at Serangoon Central. Then I went to my dad's side, which was typically my uncle's place in Bishan. Spent most of my time at both places watching TV and I watched this show about the legend of Su Can and also Chi Bi. Surprisingly the night ended off with mahjong when my cousin invited me to play with them (her, my other cousin and his fiance) so I did and it was quite fun even with the extremely friendly stakes of 10/20. Nobody won more than 3 tai and in the end it was funny cos I won from all of them but I won a grand total of $2.9 LOL. But it was still nice and for me it's the sense of winning that's important... =)
Fri (4th Feb) - Nothing happening much today cos as usual my visiting is typically done within the first day nowadays so I've been slacking since it is CNY after all but going to my aunt's place later for dinner... Shall take a good rest before working hard tmr!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Start of school; MJC Open House; Forgetful day; Buying JB property?; Start of reservist
Just started my 3rd high-key ICT today and I'm lucky to be back in Stagmont Camp as some of the others I know are in Pasir Laba Camp which is v ulu and are involved in a major exercise which is more xiong. Had a very frustrating and stressful morning though traveling to the camp because apparently there was an accident which cut off 3 lanes so the jam was utterly insane and I was stuck for an hour from Stevens Road to before Eng Neo Aveneo and in the end I switched to a cab near King Albert Park when I finally exited the expressway. Thankfully my cab cost me a mere $10 to get to camp because somebody was stuck in a cab all the way throughout the jam and paid an epic cab fee of $73!!! =s
First day of ICT was expectedly slack, esp in Stagmont Camp with about a total of 2.5 hours of briefing and then chill the rest of the day. I've been posted to another platoon though which would involve more work but by and large I'm expecting this to be a relaxed high-key, which is good!
Recap of last week's events:
Mon (10th Jan) - Start of school and 1st period was doing the usual admin stuff of briefing and checking particulars and after I was done with that I was looking forward to decorating the home room and trying to get the kids to suggest some stuff but not many seemed to be keen or maybe they were just dead after coming back from school... Hope to have a nice room to energise ourselves for the year ahead though!
Had H1 lecture right after that and again another challenge to rouse the kids with the first lecture of the day/year so I tried to crack some jokes and being BHB - told them that they will be seeing my friend and I very often for this year so thankfully we're good looking so they won't get bored of looking at us hahaha. My student joked if I had taken some pills cos I'm behaving v differently from what they are used to I think haha. Used my colourful ball that my CG gave me and did what I did with the algae ball last year so there was a bit of liveliness amongst them...
Lessons ended at 12.05pm cos we had Open House preparations so I missed tons of lessons... Ended up doing orientation stuff before leaving early to go home and sleep cos I stayed up late the night before preparing for today's lecture and trying to source for some interesting applications of alkenes... A good start to the year I suppose since I rarely get the chance to see the light when I leave school haha so must treasure the opportunity. =p
Tue (11th Jan) - Missed ALL my 4 periods today again cos of Open House preparations so spent my time doing council and H1 stuff and also took some time off to compile a list of classic moments that my friends at MJC and I have shared and it was hilarious thinking about all the good times we've spent over these few years. I guess it's about time I did so seeing that many of us have left or are in the midst of leaving and likewise for myself if things go to plan... Went out for lunch at Tampines One's Imperial Treasure and had a nice la mian and dim sum then jalan for a while there cos I needed to wait before going for a haircut...
Wed (12th Jan) - MJC Open House and I saw some of the performances and was particularly impressed with the dance performance. I also saw a couple of ex-students such as Jon, KF, Janson, Wen Xin, Joanne, Hui Xin and some others not from my class but whom I've taught before (esp from my 2nd batch). Had a nice chat with Joanne and I missed her calling me "lao lao shi" haha. Told her I'll try to see if I can arrange for a class gathering cos seems like their class hasn't met up since our BBQ last Jan and even then only slightly more than half the class turned up...
Anyway, it was a good day and I dressed up for the occasion with a funky pink shirt with interesting patterns which drew quite a few compliments (more from the guys though sadly hahaha but it still feels good!) and I also styled my hair haha, which kinda entertained my students esp my CG since I saw them for assembly.
My CG's proposal was chosen so they ended up selling i-phone covers for i-phone 3 but it wasn't particularly successful cos some ppl didn't have an i-phone or they had i-phone 4 which was of a different shape. Nevertheless, it was a good effort from some of them and I believe they learnt something about designing personalised i-phone covers as well as how tough it is to do business cos you need to put in a lot of thought and effort in promoting your stuff and convincing ppl to buy your stuff...
Oh, the councilors put up a net with balloons on top of it to spell out "Be Mii", which was the theme for our Open House this year and I thought it was quite a good effort even though the councilors were split in doing the task and seems like this has led to some major issues amongst them but I felt it was a good learning experience to see what they could do if they put aside their differences and work together... =)
Thu (13th Jan) - Dunno why but I seem to have woken up from the wrong side of the bed. First, I missed my bus stop cos I was stoning and then wasted time to turn back to get to the MRT. Then when I reached school I realised that I had forgotten to bring back my laptop from home! And when I went out for lunch I forgot to pass the discount voucher to the staff until I was prompted to give it haha...
H1 lecture was quite ok and there was one part where I was joking with one of my canoeing students to show that he has brains and not just brawns though I was kinda disturbed with myself that I said that he's a canoeing freak cos it sounded weird though I didn't mean freak in a freak kinda way if you know what I mean...
Had H2 tutorial with both my classes and it was a fun day just going through a recap of organic chemistry cos it's back to basics and using the whiteboard is sometimes a good thing rather than being glued to the tablet. Many were clearly out of touch with their work though so it was a lot of suaning time esp those supposedly good ones from Promos who were to be banded into LT5 and giving looks of disgust and dismay at people. I was truly quite aghast though at some of them and so was my sis who was sitting in cos she's helping me to cover my lessons during my reservist. My 417 was very cute though and when I said that they'll be in safe hands when I'm not around, they called my sis the babysitter and then someone said that I'm like the dad haha. Crappy! Had a fun time with them and teased my student about not having to bring a ruler to the board to draw the structures cos she's obsessively neat which everyone knows so they laughed at my jibe.
Fri (14th Jan) - Had a very boring morning as we went through the HD tutorial during our meeting and then spent the rest of the day doing council stuff and having a makeup lesson with my 417 to finish up some stuff. Went out for drinks at night at the Mezzanine Bar at Hyatt Hotel and they had cheap nice mocktails cos it was Happy Hour! Only about $5++ per drink!
Sat (15th Jan) - Went to Orchard in the morning to do recce with the councilors and OGLs for our MMM and then jalan around Paragon before going home to do work and then attended a friend's wedding dinner at Qian Xi Restaurant at the Civil Service Club at Tessensohn Road. The dinner was ok and the food was surprisingly decent though I didn't really fancy the setting of the place and it was quite messy cos the seating plan wasn't done properly and some of our names were not on the list. But it was all sorted out in the end so it's all good lah!
Sun (16th Jan) - Went to JB to look at some property there with friends and it was quite an eye-opener! It was certainly an interesting proposition and I need to seriously think about making such investments and making plans about my finances, something which I have been woefully neglecting over the years... We got lost while traveling around though haha and it was funny as we joked about the signs which didn't seem to be accurate and we even drove to Senai airport and many other places before finally finding our location. Went to Jusco, which is some mega-mall there but I didn't buy anything cos we spent a limited time there and while I tried on a lot of stuff, either I didn't see much worth buying or I didn't like some of the designs...
Ok, that's all for now - time to rest - got a route march to go for and then I'll head to the gym after that with Jon - pumping iron is good! =p
First day of ICT was expectedly slack, esp in Stagmont Camp with about a total of 2.5 hours of briefing and then chill the rest of the day. I've been posted to another platoon though which would involve more work but by and large I'm expecting this to be a relaxed high-key, which is good!
Recap of last week's events:
Mon (10th Jan) - Start of school and 1st period was doing the usual admin stuff of briefing and checking particulars and after I was done with that I was looking forward to decorating the home room and trying to get the kids to suggest some stuff but not many seemed to be keen or maybe they were just dead after coming back from school... Hope to have a nice room to energise ourselves for the year ahead though!
Had H1 lecture right after that and again another challenge to rouse the kids with the first lecture of the day/year so I tried to crack some jokes and being BHB - told them that they will be seeing my friend and I very often for this year so thankfully we're good looking so they won't get bored of looking at us hahaha. My student joked if I had taken some pills cos I'm behaving v differently from what they are used to I think haha. Used my colourful ball that my CG gave me and did what I did with the algae ball last year so there was a bit of liveliness amongst them...
Lessons ended at 12.05pm cos we had Open House preparations so I missed tons of lessons... Ended up doing orientation stuff before leaving early to go home and sleep cos I stayed up late the night before preparing for today's lecture and trying to source for some interesting applications of alkenes... A good start to the year I suppose since I rarely get the chance to see the light when I leave school haha so must treasure the opportunity. =p
Tue (11th Jan) - Missed ALL my 4 periods today again cos of Open House preparations so spent my time doing council and H1 stuff and also took some time off to compile a list of classic moments that my friends at MJC and I have shared and it was hilarious thinking about all the good times we've spent over these few years. I guess it's about time I did so seeing that many of us have left or are in the midst of leaving and likewise for myself if things go to plan... Went out for lunch at Tampines One's Imperial Treasure and had a nice la mian and dim sum then jalan for a while there cos I needed to wait before going for a haircut...
Wed (12th Jan) - MJC Open House and I saw some of the performances and was particularly impressed with the dance performance. I also saw a couple of ex-students such as Jon, KF, Janson, Wen Xin, Joanne, Hui Xin and some others not from my class but whom I've taught before (esp from my 2nd batch). Had a nice chat with Joanne and I missed her calling me "lao lao shi" haha. Told her I'll try to see if I can arrange for a class gathering cos seems like their class hasn't met up since our BBQ last Jan and even then only slightly more than half the class turned up...
Anyway, it was a good day and I dressed up for the occasion with a funky pink shirt with interesting patterns which drew quite a few compliments (more from the guys though sadly hahaha but it still feels good!) and I also styled my hair haha, which kinda entertained my students esp my CG since I saw them for assembly.
My CG's proposal was chosen so they ended up selling i-phone covers for i-phone 3 but it wasn't particularly successful cos some ppl didn't have an i-phone or they had i-phone 4 which was of a different shape. Nevertheless, it was a good effort from some of them and I believe they learnt something about designing personalised i-phone covers as well as how tough it is to do business cos you need to put in a lot of thought and effort in promoting your stuff and convincing ppl to buy your stuff...
Oh, the councilors put up a net with balloons on top of it to spell out "Be Mii", which was the theme for our Open House this year and I thought it was quite a good effort even though the councilors were split in doing the task and seems like this has led to some major issues amongst them but I felt it was a good learning experience to see what they could do if they put aside their differences and work together... =)
Thu (13th Jan) - Dunno why but I seem to have woken up from the wrong side of the bed. First, I missed my bus stop cos I was stoning and then wasted time to turn back to get to the MRT. Then when I reached school I realised that I had forgotten to bring back my laptop from home! And when I went out for lunch I forgot to pass the discount voucher to the staff until I was prompted to give it haha...
H1 lecture was quite ok and there was one part where I was joking with one of my canoeing students to show that he has brains and not just brawns though I was kinda disturbed with myself that I said that he's a canoeing freak cos it sounded weird though I didn't mean freak in a freak kinda way if you know what I mean...
Had H2 tutorial with both my classes and it was a fun day just going through a recap of organic chemistry cos it's back to basics and using the whiteboard is sometimes a good thing rather than being glued to the tablet. Many were clearly out of touch with their work though so it was a lot of suaning time esp those supposedly good ones from Promos who were to be banded into LT5 and giving looks of disgust and dismay at people. I was truly quite aghast though at some of them and so was my sis who was sitting in cos she's helping me to cover my lessons during my reservist. My 417 was very cute though and when I said that they'll be in safe hands when I'm not around, they called my sis the babysitter and then someone said that I'm like the dad haha. Crappy! Had a fun time with them and teased my student about not having to bring a ruler to the board to draw the structures cos she's obsessively neat which everyone knows so they laughed at my jibe.
Fri (14th Jan) - Had a very boring morning as we went through the HD tutorial during our meeting and then spent the rest of the day doing council stuff and having a makeup lesson with my 417 to finish up some stuff. Went out for drinks at night at the Mezzanine Bar at Hyatt Hotel and they had cheap nice mocktails cos it was Happy Hour! Only about $5++ per drink!
Sat (15th Jan) - Went to Orchard in the morning to do recce with the councilors and OGLs for our MMM and then jalan around Paragon before going home to do work and then attended a friend's wedding dinner at Qian Xi Restaurant at the Civil Service Club at Tessensohn Road. The dinner was ok and the food was surprisingly decent though I didn't really fancy the setting of the place and it was quite messy cos the seating plan wasn't done properly and some of our names were not on the list. But it was all sorted out in the end so it's all good lah!
Sun (16th Jan) - Went to JB to look at some property there with friends and it was quite an eye-opener! It was certainly an interesting proposition and I need to seriously think about making such investments and making plans about my finances, something which I have been woefully neglecting over the years... We got lost while traveling around though haha and it was funny as we joked about the signs which didn't seem to be accurate and we even drove to Senai airport and many other places before finally finding our location. Went to Jusco, which is some mega-mall there but I didn't buy anything cos we spent a limited time there and while I tried on a lot of stuff, either I didn't see much worth buying or I didn't like some of the designs...
Ok, that's all for now - time to rest - got a route march to go for and then I'll head to the gym after that with Jon - pumping iron is good! =p
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Wedding Bells; Batam Trip; Posh Food; DS's Birthday Party
Updates for the past week!
1st Jan (Sat) - Attended my fellow Council TA's wedding solemnization ceremony at Bedok Reservoir Park, at the jetty area there, and it was quite refreshing because it's very cooling and quite quiet. Met up with quite a few of the ex-students there who were ex-councilors and some students from my 1st batch. The funniest incident was when during the ceremony, an old uncle who was topless ran across the bridge towards the central area where the ceremony was held despite some of the other people shouting at him to stop haha. Some of the kids then started cheering and clapping and it certainly made the event a lot funnier. =p
2nd Jan - Attended my fellow Council TA's wedding dinner at Mandarin Orchard and I was rolling back the years as that was the venue for my JC Prom Night haha. It's a nice place though - large and without any pillars to block your view of the stage and screens and decent food and service.
There was an ex-colleague at our table who's in MOE HQ now, at the Curriculum Planning & Development Division department which I'm thinking of joining so I asked her about life there. Generally, it's better in terms of working hours (for the "small fries" at least) and the work is very much related to teaching since it involves the development of new syllabus (for which a full cycle occurs every 6 years) though they need to be thick-skinned as teachers will tend to bombard them with questions and sometimes level criticisms at them when they go to schools to communicate regarding changes in the syllabus. This, despite them not being the ones who make the decisions regarding syllabus changes but only suggest recommendations after doing a review every three years. The power appears to lie with the politicians and sometimes if there's a strategic change for the nation, then it could mean a lot of work having to be scrapped or undone, which can be very frustrating as I imagine so I guess I'll just have to temper my expectations if I'm there - don't imagine I can do major changes to the educational landscape but just do what I can to improve teaching and learning.
3rd to 5th Jan (Mon to Wed) - Went to Batam with some of my friends in our Chem Unit! Though quite a few of us have been there just last year during the Jun Holidays, it's still a good place to go to whenever there's time for a short break cos it's so convenient and cheap! Think I was too busy last year and forgot to blog about that trip so here's some description of the places there. Had cheap and fresh seafood everyday for lunch at Delima's (about $13 per pax for a meal for 6 ppl which included 3 crabs), which was just 5 minutes walk from where we stayed - Holiday Inn Hotel.
1st day we reached at about 2pm Singapore time so we checked in and quickly went out for lunch before returning to play at the Games Room which had free table soccer! But we played 1 game only haha cos the table was slightly spoilt and also we had other things to keep us occupied. We also played Uno Stacko and it was fun cos there were quite a few exciting situations and we played forfeits for the loser and the loser had to answer questions truthfully. Went out for light snack at Nagoya Hills and we ended up at Godiva's where the drinks were good (the Avocado Chocolate was awesome!) but the food was utterly sucky and not worth the money also. Then we went for massage at this place called "Everyday" and it was pretty ok during our first visit where most of us had the Balinese massage and it was cheap also (about $11.75 for 1.5 hours). By the time we were done though, it was 10pm Batam time and the shopping mall was closed so we had to settle for supper by buying food from Circle K (it's like our 7-11) and some satay from a stall just beside it (was 10 Singapore cents a piece but wasn't good). Reached our room and then just snacked and talked before sleeping...
2nd day I woke up early to hit the gym (so disciplined yeah?) and I was motivated by what some of my friends said yesterday - that I looked a bit meatier and a bit more toned - so I wanted to make sure I keep up with the exercise regime that I had during the holidays instead of just the once a week sessions that I had for most of last year. After that we went out for lunch before coming back for some games of Monopoly Deal, which was pretty fun, especially against some intellectual opposition. Then we went to play a little bit of water polo which was a bit disappointing this time but I think it was cos of the ball haha. There wasn't a water polo ball so they lent us a volleyball, which was quite slippery and too often I found my shots flying too high or slipping out of my hand as I shot. =( Started with 1 v 3, which the other guys suggested and it was just insane cos I was restricted to taking long shots practically all of the time. When I did go out to try something different, I had to make sure I score or else the counter would be too easy. Though I took the lead, I lost 2-5, which wasn't surprising I guess given the circumstances haha. Then we played round-robin 2v2 and started off with a nice 5-2 win but got thrashed with another partner 0-5 and for the last match we were down 2-3 before calling off the game cos someone had cramps. Went for my first ever steam bath and then sauna and I can't say that I'm a fan for such things so that's prob the last time that I'll try those... Went Nagoya Hills again for massage at the same place and this time we tried the combo Thai + Balinese massage and it was awesome! I don't know if it's cos of the type of massage and/or masseuse but it was really great and really stretched some rarely used muscles like the butt and body and the hand and foot massage was really thorough and pressed every part of your palms and soles - baik lah! There was one very funny incident cos apparently one of the masseuse commented on my friend's butt was sexy - she said something like "sexy banyak" ("banyak" kinda means many, much and another friend said that the better word was "sekali" which means very but she prob thought that he wouldn't understand hence she used "banyak") and that became our catchphrase the next few days hahaha. I tipped my masseuse $4, which was quite a lot compared to the price of the massage but I thought it was worth it, while 2 others tipped 10k rupiah (about $1.5) and someone tipped 1k rupiah (hmmm... I rather not tip then!) We had dinner at the KFC there and I think the chicken there is much better than Singapore's! After dinner we headed back to our hotel where we played Monopoly Deal until almost 5am Singapore time! It was pretty addictive haha but now we've reached this stage where we all know each other's strategies so it becomes a matter of what cards we pick already...
3rd day was just a really chill day after the v late night we had so slept in till late then just had some breakfast, chat, then checked out and went for lunch before heading home... Reached back at Singapore at about 4.30 pm then headed home to rest. Overall a very relaxing and enjoyable trip and v. cheap - only $204.2 for everything - accommodation, ferry tickets and taxes, food, and massage!
Got some funny incidents and jokes but will save them for my next post cos it'll take me some more time and I should get started on work already!
6th Jan (Thu) - Reached school at 8am to try and settle some orientation matters and then cleaned up part of my workspace until about 5pm before I headed home to change and then meet up with my da jie for some v. posh dinner at Kuriya Penthouse at Orchard Central. I think that was the first time I ever spent $300 on a meal for 2 but it was quite a gastronomic experience! Started with a complimentary mocktail drink (I think he said it's Japanese vinegar drink??? Sounds really strange but I just googled it and apparently there are such drinks which are v popular) which was quite interesting cos the master bartender (yes, he gave us a namecard which stated he's a master bartender) said that if you're feeling well, it will taste sweet and if you're not, it will taste sour, which sounded pretty much like BS but it tasted sweet to me and sour to my sis so maybe there's some truth to it after all!
I had this Chef Omakase course, which I thought initially was the chef's name hahaha, but then I realised that it's a term for meals rather than the name and from what I googled it's supposed to mean "it's up to you", which means the chef will decide on what's to be served for the course, depending on the occasion (e.g. he thought of dishes related to the new year since it's the start of the new year) and other stuff... Let me try to recall what was in the course - (1) Appetiser consisting of black beans and pickles, herring roe, and anchovies (2) Japanese glutinous rice soaked in sake and with some vegetables (3) 4 kinds of sashimi - scallop, yellowtail, fatty tuna, prawn. Also had some shellfish and flounder from my sis cos she ordered 5 kinds of sashimi and they were all very solid! I usually only eat salmon and have eaten swordfish (which is nice) and tuna (which I don't really like) so the other kinds of fish like yellowtail and flounder was an interesting experience and it was great! (4) Deep-fried puffer fish - very interesting given that it's a poisonous fish and you need a special license in order to serve this dish. The taste wasn't out-of-this-world though but nevertheless something new and probably quite rare to eat this kinda stuff. (5) Foie Gras with steamed beancurd skin - nice combi and the foie gras was absolutely excellent! (6)Steamed chicken and vegetable rice - very smooth and soft rice which my sis said is like risotto and a pity we were too full by then so we couldn't finish it but it was pretty good! I think I forgot a dish somewhere but nvm, the menu changes once in a while so no point memorising everything in the course anyway haha. (7) Dessert - it was a mixture of mousse (there were mango, yogurt, and chocolate flavours) and the bartender served us on a dessert trolley cos the mousse came in shooter glasses and apparently you can eat as much as you want. Then we had a choice of fruits and we went for all the Japanese fruits cos they cost so much in Japan you wonder what's so special about them haha. They were really sweet and juicy I must say though I'd still prob not pay the kind of prices I see at the Japan supermarkets... Fine dining to me is a once-in-a-while kind of experience, not an everyday one haha - can't afford to! Unless maybe if I start giving tuition... Oh, they had an in-house magician to show some simple tricks and he did this rubber band thingie which I think I figured out how he did it and 2 card tricks which I couldn't really figure out (should watch more of the TV programme that reveals the secrets to magic tricks!). Overall the place is really posh, but the service is excellent (perhaps cos it wasn't crowded so the bartender had time to come chat with us once in a while, and all the dishes were introduced to us by whoever served the dish. I also like the fact that the bartender offered to and did concoct drinks for us that weren't in the menu cos it gave much more variety and the cost of the drinks were the same as those in the menu), food quality is excellent, ambience is very good (pity that the view from the place wasn't great considering it's a penthouse but the dining area was cosy and the alfresco part was cooling), though all this comes with a price (expected for any fine dining experience I guess). If I had tons of cash, I'd go back to this place frequently but for the normal people like myself, once in a while is good enough =)
7th Jan (Fri) - Reached school at 8am for staff meeting which seemed to last forever and went 45 minutes past the stated timing then after that had our chem unit meeting till lunch time. Went out with some of my friends to Downtown East and ended up at New York New York. Went back to school after that to help out a bit in setting up the net for Open House and try to settle orientation matters again before heading home to change and then out to Marina Bay Sands for DS's birthday party!
I had the idea that the party was going to be at a function room but it was a hotel room. Nevertheless, it was a HUGE hotel room (almost as big as my house unit and probably about 3x bigger than a standard hotel room) and there were less than 50 people I think so it was very spacious and the room was on the 54th storey so we had real good view of the Esplanade and the river - a very pretty sight indeed - but the cost is a whopping $900++ per night (though he had a discount so it was slightly less than $800). The best part of the night was playing Guitar Heroes and we played for like tons of hours and we jammed the night away till like 8am though some of them starting dying at like 5-6am haha. Had great fun playing the drums though I think I smacked it too hard cos after a few hours my hands were killing me cos they were experiencing a lot of pain and it was quite a struggle to coordinate the hitting of the drums and the pedal for the complicated patterns. The guitar was cool too though for the harder levels I tried to play it like a piano cos it was too crazy sliding my hand across the handle to hit the notes. Overall it was extremely fun and the best part was when we played our "Record of the Century" called "Bodies" and PY and YQ were singing like crazy and all of us including the audience were like ROFL even as we were playing. We played that song at least 5 times! As Randy would say, "It was dope, dawg!" In between playing that we played a little bit of other games as we let others play and Jon shot the moon in Hearts while I was pretty dismal when playing Halli Galli - clearly out of touch ever since I got out of IGC and my reflexes were woefully slow! Great night and minimal drinking this time after what happened the week before so it was just good fun!
8th Jan (Sat) - By the time we left MBS it was already about 11am and we were hungry after staying up through the night so we had a quick lunch at Marina Square (the saba set at one of the stalls was great but the aloe vera honey juice at the drinks stall was terrible) before heading home and I conked out for 9+ hours till almost 11pm before doing some work then sleeping again.
9th Jan (Sun) - did work in the morning and just finished gymming about 2 hours ago. Back to work for me again after this as I get ready for the start of school tmr! Doing well with my New Year resolutions so far - quite prompt in doing stuff, even in updating my blog! Gambatte for the tough year ahead! =)
1st Jan (Sat) - Attended my fellow Council TA's wedding solemnization ceremony at Bedok Reservoir Park, at the jetty area there, and it was quite refreshing because it's very cooling and quite quiet. Met up with quite a few of the ex-students there who were ex-councilors and some students from my 1st batch. The funniest incident was when during the ceremony, an old uncle who was topless ran across the bridge towards the central area where the ceremony was held despite some of the other people shouting at him to stop haha. Some of the kids then started cheering and clapping and it certainly made the event a lot funnier. =p
2nd Jan - Attended my fellow Council TA's wedding dinner at Mandarin Orchard and I was rolling back the years as that was the venue for my JC Prom Night haha. It's a nice place though - large and without any pillars to block your view of the stage and screens and decent food and service.
There was an ex-colleague at our table who's in MOE HQ now, at the Curriculum Planning & Development Division department which I'm thinking of joining so I asked her about life there. Generally, it's better in terms of working hours (for the "small fries" at least) and the work is very much related to teaching since it involves the development of new syllabus (for which a full cycle occurs every 6 years) though they need to be thick-skinned as teachers will tend to bombard them with questions and sometimes level criticisms at them when they go to schools to communicate regarding changes in the syllabus. This, despite them not being the ones who make the decisions regarding syllabus changes but only suggest recommendations after doing a review every three years. The power appears to lie with the politicians and sometimes if there's a strategic change for the nation, then it could mean a lot of work having to be scrapped or undone, which can be very frustrating as I imagine so I guess I'll just have to temper my expectations if I'm there - don't imagine I can do major changes to the educational landscape but just do what I can to improve teaching and learning.
3rd to 5th Jan (Mon to Wed) - Went to Batam with some of my friends in our Chem Unit! Though quite a few of us have been there just last year during the Jun Holidays, it's still a good place to go to whenever there's time for a short break cos it's so convenient and cheap! Think I was too busy last year and forgot to blog about that trip so here's some description of the places there. Had cheap and fresh seafood everyday for lunch at Delima's (about $13 per pax for a meal for 6 ppl which included 3 crabs), which was just 5 minutes walk from where we stayed - Holiday Inn Hotel.
1st day we reached at about 2pm Singapore time so we checked in and quickly went out for lunch before returning to play at the Games Room which had free table soccer! But we played 1 game only haha cos the table was slightly spoilt and also we had other things to keep us occupied. We also played Uno Stacko and it was fun cos there were quite a few exciting situations and we played forfeits for the loser and the loser had to answer questions truthfully. Went out for light snack at Nagoya Hills and we ended up at Godiva's where the drinks were good (the Avocado Chocolate was awesome!) but the food was utterly sucky and not worth the money also. Then we went for massage at this place called "Everyday" and it was pretty ok during our first visit where most of us had the Balinese massage and it was cheap also (about $11.75 for 1.5 hours). By the time we were done though, it was 10pm Batam time and the shopping mall was closed so we had to settle for supper by buying food from Circle K (it's like our 7-11) and some satay from a stall just beside it (was 10 Singapore cents a piece but wasn't good). Reached our room and then just snacked and talked before sleeping...
2nd day I woke up early to hit the gym (so disciplined yeah?) and I was motivated by what some of my friends said yesterday - that I looked a bit meatier and a bit more toned - so I wanted to make sure I keep up with the exercise regime that I had during the holidays instead of just the once a week sessions that I had for most of last year. After that we went out for lunch before coming back for some games of Monopoly Deal, which was pretty fun, especially against some intellectual opposition. Then we went to play a little bit of water polo which was a bit disappointing this time but I think it was cos of the ball haha. There wasn't a water polo ball so they lent us a volleyball, which was quite slippery and too often I found my shots flying too high or slipping out of my hand as I shot. =( Started with 1 v 3, which the other guys suggested and it was just insane cos I was restricted to taking long shots practically all of the time. When I did go out to try something different, I had to make sure I score or else the counter would be too easy. Though I took the lead, I lost 2-5, which wasn't surprising I guess given the circumstances haha. Then we played round-robin 2v2 and started off with a nice 5-2 win but got thrashed with another partner 0-5 and for the last match we were down 2-3 before calling off the game cos someone had cramps. Went for my first ever steam bath and then sauna and I can't say that I'm a fan for such things so that's prob the last time that I'll try those... Went Nagoya Hills again for massage at the same place and this time we tried the combo Thai + Balinese massage and it was awesome! I don't know if it's cos of the type of massage and/or masseuse but it was really great and really stretched some rarely used muscles like the butt and body and the hand and foot massage was really thorough and pressed every part of your palms and soles - baik lah! There was one very funny incident cos apparently one of the masseuse commented on my friend's butt was sexy - she said something like "sexy banyak" ("banyak" kinda means many, much and another friend said that the better word was "sekali" which means very but she prob thought that he wouldn't understand hence she used "banyak") and that became our catchphrase the next few days hahaha. I tipped my masseuse $4, which was quite a lot compared to the price of the massage but I thought it was worth it, while 2 others tipped 10k rupiah (about $1.5) and someone tipped 1k rupiah (hmmm... I rather not tip then!) We had dinner at the KFC there and I think the chicken there is much better than Singapore's! After dinner we headed back to our hotel where we played Monopoly Deal until almost 5am Singapore time! It was pretty addictive haha but now we've reached this stage where we all know each other's strategies so it becomes a matter of what cards we pick already...
3rd day was just a really chill day after the v late night we had so slept in till late then just had some breakfast, chat, then checked out and went for lunch before heading home... Reached back at Singapore at about 4.30 pm then headed home to rest. Overall a very relaxing and enjoyable trip and v. cheap - only $204.2 for everything - accommodation, ferry tickets and taxes, food, and massage!
Got some funny incidents and jokes but will save them for my next post cos it'll take me some more time and I should get started on work already!
6th Jan (Thu) - Reached school at 8am to try and settle some orientation matters and then cleaned up part of my workspace until about 5pm before I headed home to change and then meet up with my da jie for some v. posh dinner at Kuriya Penthouse at Orchard Central. I think that was the first time I ever spent $300 on a meal for 2 but it was quite a gastronomic experience! Started with a complimentary mocktail drink (I think he said it's Japanese vinegar drink??? Sounds really strange but I just googled it and apparently there are such drinks which are v popular) which was quite interesting cos the master bartender (yes, he gave us a namecard which stated he's a master bartender) said that if you're feeling well, it will taste sweet and if you're not, it will taste sour, which sounded pretty much like BS but it tasted sweet to me and sour to my sis so maybe there's some truth to it after all!
I had this Chef Omakase course, which I thought initially was the chef's name hahaha, but then I realised that it's a term for meals rather than the name and from what I googled it's supposed to mean "it's up to you", which means the chef will decide on what's to be served for the course, depending on the occasion (e.g. he thought of dishes related to the new year since it's the start of the new year) and other stuff... Let me try to recall what was in the course - (1) Appetiser consisting of black beans and pickles, herring roe, and anchovies (2) Japanese glutinous rice soaked in sake and with some vegetables (3) 4 kinds of sashimi - scallop, yellowtail, fatty tuna, prawn. Also had some shellfish and flounder from my sis cos she ordered 5 kinds of sashimi and they were all very solid! I usually only eat salmon and have eaten swordfish (which is nice) and tuna (which I don't really like) so the other kinds of fish like yellowtail and flounder was an interesting experience and it was great! (4) Deep-fried puffer fish - very interesting given that it's a poisonous fish and you need a special license in order to serve this dish. The taste wasn't out-of-this-world though but nevertheless something new and probably quite rare to eat this kinda stuff. (5) Foie Gras with steamed beancurd skin - nice combi and the foie gras was absolutely excellent! (6)Steamed chicken and vegetable rice - very smooth and soft rice which my sis said is like risotto and a pity we were too full by then so we couldn't finish it but it was pretty good! I think I forgot a dish somewhere but nvm, the menu changes once in a while so no point memorising everything in the course anyway haha. (7) Dessert - it was a mixture of mousse (there were mango, yogurt, and chocolate flavours) and the bartender served us on a dessert trolley cos the mousse came in shooter glasses and apparently you can eat as much as you want. Then we had a choice of fruits and we went for all the Japanese fruits cos they cost so much in Japan you wonder what's so special about them haha. They were really sweet and juicy I must say though I'd still prob not pay the kind of prices I see at the Japan supermarkets... Fine dining to me is a once-in-a-while kind of experience, not an everyday one haha - can't afford to! Unless maybe if I start giving tuition... Oh, they had an in-house magician to show some simple tricks and he did this rubber band thingie which I think I figured out how he did it and 2 card tricks which I couldn't really figure out (should watch more of the TV programme that reveals the secrets to magic tricks!). Overall the place is really posh, but the service is excellent (perhaps cos it wasn't crowded so the bartender had time to come chat with us once in a while, and all the dishes were introduced to us by whoever served the dish. I also like the fact that the bartender offered to and did concoct drinks for us that weren't in the menu cos it gave much more variety and the cost of the drinks were the same as those in the menu), food quality is excellent, ambience is very good (pity that the view from the place wasn't great considering it's a penthouse but the dining area was cosy and the alfresco part was cooling), though all this comes with a price (expected for any fine dining experience I guess). If I had tons of cash, I'd go back to this place frequently but for the normal people like myself, once in a while is good enough =)
7th Jan (Fri) - Reached school at 8am for staff meeting which seemed to last forever and went 45 minutes past the stated timing then after that had our chem unit meeting till lunch time. Went out with some of my friends to Downtown East and ended up at New York New York. Went back to school after that to help out a bit in setting up the net for Open House and try to settle orientation matters again before heading home to change and then out to Marina Bay Sands for DS's birthday party!
I had the idea that the party was going to be at a function room but it was a hotel room. Nevertheless, it was a HUGE hotel room (almost as big as my house unit and probably about 3x bigger than a standard hotel room) and there were less than 50 people I think so it was very spacious and the room was on the 54th storey so we had real good view of the Esplanade and the river - a very pretty sight indeed - but the cost is a whopping $900++ per night (though he had a discount so it was slightly less than $800). The best part of the night was playing Guitar Heroes and we played for like tons of hours and we jammed the night away till like 8am though some of them starting dying at like 5-6am haha. Had great fun playing the drums though I think I smacked it too hard cos after a few hours my hands were killing me cos they were experiencing a lot of pain and it was quite a struggle to coordinate the hitting of the drums and the pedal for the complicated patterns. The guitar was cool too though for the harder levels I tried to play it like a piano cos it was too crazy sliding my hand across the handle to hit the notes. Overall it was extremely fun and the best part was when we played our "Record of the Century" called "Bodies" and PY and YQ were singing like crazy and all of us including the audience were like ROFL even as we were playing. We played that song at least 5 times! As Randy would say, "It was dope, dawg!" In between playing that we played a little bit of other games as we let others play and Jon shot the moon in Hearts while I was pretty dismal when playing Halli Galli - clearly out of touch ever since I got out of IGC and my reflexes were woefully slow! Great night and minimal drinking this time after what happened the week before so it was just good fun!
8th Jan (Sat) - By the time we left MBS it was already about 11am and we were hungry after staying up through the night so we had a quick lunch at Marina Square (the saba set at one of the stalls was great but the aloe vera honey juice at the drinks stall was terrible) before heading home and I conked out for 9+ hours till almost 11pm before doing some work then sleeping again.
9th Jan (Sun) - did work in the morning and just finished gymming about 2 hours ago. Back to work for me again after this as I get ready for the start of school tmr! Doing well with my New Year resolutions so far - quite prompt in doing stuff, even in updating my blog! Gambatte for the tough year ahead! =)
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