Delicious looking soup

Grilled Chicken

Cherlynn is totally (not) camera-shy!

After a hearty lunch, Brenda suggested going to the flea market near by. As I’ve never been to a flea market, I gladly agreed, so did the rest of the girls. The last time I tried to go to a flea market, I spend 2 hours trying to find my way, got lost and never made it there in the end.

Come to think of it, I’ve done a couple of things I’ve never done before that day. I have never withdraw cash from an ATM machine nor have I ever been to a flea market before Saturday. I can explain myself. Let me see, the probability of Dayna losing her wallet is 10% and the probability that she will drop some cash when she opens her wallet is 30% which is about 40% in total and this is considered high risk. To mitigate the financial risk, it’s safer for her to bring lesser cash when she leaves the house. Sounds cool? Since it was my first time, I thought it was normal that I inserted the card in the wrong direction! Ivy helped me on that and Brenda even conducted an interview with me. I feel grown up to have finally used the ATM machine (lol).

We conquered the flea market! - Photo by Brenda & edited by me

Flowery vintage top

The flea market was packed and we had a hard time trying to escape. We went across the road to the other flea market (I’m not sure if it’s suppose to be the same one) beside Cineleisure. It’s quieter and we had a better time shopping if you ignored the hot weather. Everyone bought something and I’m no exception being a hardcore shopaholic myself.

I got myself a brand new vintage flowery top for SGD 18. It was priced at SGD 20 and Brenda manage to bargain to 18 for me. Lesson learn: always try to bargain if the tops are above SGD 15. According to the girls, the top is so me! They practically know my style 101% in an hour. I thought the photo of us above is so “blogger-style”.

We were melting by the time we “conquered” the flea market. Some air-con shopping and Sakura flowers sounds like a good plan? We headed to Takashimaya excitingly to view the exhibition of live Sakura flowers and here’s what we saw…

This fantastic video is taken and edited by Brenda. You should definitely check out her post and Cherlynn’s about our outing. It has an extremely unflattering but cute (according to her) photo of me and I’m definitely not going to post that photo of myself here.

Sakura flowers & a really cool pose - Photo by Brenda

Cherlynn and I look kind of dumb beside Brenda’s awesome pose. It’s kind of funny how all of us did the peace sign in a lot of photographs to piss Brenda off. The awesome pose ended with a bang as well as Brenda fell after a few seconds. I think a few others saw it but we were too busy wondering if Brenda’s okay to bother about the attention. At least her effort was not in vain as Ivy managed to capture this great shot of us. We should all do the star jump pose the next time we meet!

The day ended with more shopping and jokes, of course. I will proudly present the joke of the day award to Cherlynn (I’ve got a feeling she’s going to kill me for this). So what happen exactly? We were trying out some clothes at Fox. Cherlynn tried out this grey superman tank and denim shorts. We thought she look great in it and urge her to grab the top. She thought the denim shorts was a bit too short. It all happened within a few seconds when she asked the big question: Do I look like a hooker in it? And the next moment, this was what we heard over the speaker: And you ain’t nothin’ but a hooker. According to Brenda, this song is titled ‘Hooker’ by Pink. It was so much of a coincident that all of us burst out laughing uncontrollably. I feel bad for exposing her in this entry, how about a little cartoon as compensation?

Cartoon illustration of the awesome photo above

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1. A day with Terry and Brenda
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3. Sing towards your 21st

We arrived at about 9.30am and the place was pretty packed. I had not expected such a big crowd since it wasn’t a weekend or school holiday. I was very impressed with the architectures, buildings and design because they are gorgeous! I don’t feel like I’m in Singapore once I stepped into the park. The friendly staff directed our ways to collect the dining and shopping vouchers and we started our day via taking a picture with my favourite animal in the world – the famous Kungfu panda, Po.

Honestly speaking, I don’t really like this photograph because I’m so tiny in it. I can’t even see my own face clearly. The shot taken by the cameraman of Universal Studios Singapore did a better job and we ended up purchasing the photograph which cost us SGD 10 from the photo studio; The Dark Room. Quite a creative name instead of the usual “Kodak Express” I see in the malls!

Why doesn’t Singapore have such beautiful newspaper stands (or is it called the papers vending machine)? We headed straight to Madagascar and managed to catch a 15 seconds performance of the penguins. I was so glad I got the chance to take a shot with the super duper adorable penguins. What’s his name again? Skipper? My personal favourite is the short chubby one. I should have asked him for his name (the penguin not the person)!

Our first ride was the King Julien’s Beach Party-Go-Round which is basically just a ordinary Merry-Go-Round without the horses. You will find all kinds of characters in Madagascar on this ride. I love the penguins so I chose to ride with them! The ride was really slow so don’t worry about getting dizzy. The kids are having a really good time on this but for someone who has lived 2 decades on this earth, it was all right. The characters were adorable though.

There was really nothing much at Madagascar but the shops are beautifully designed. I took a picture of the penguins hanging from the ceiling. I applauded the management for taking the time and money to beautify the ceilings. Most wouldn’t even spare a glance at the ceilings. On a random note, you are going to love Sissy’s photographs, she has the most hilarious and coolest pose! And one of the joke of the day?

Mum: Excuse me, may I know where to get to this roller coaster (pointing at the Enchanted Airways ride)?
Staff: Oh, you have to walk to far far away.
Mum: Huh? I still have to walk far far away to get there?
Sissy: LOL! No, no, that place is called “Far Far Away”.
Mum: Oh (laughs), thanks!

I couldn’t get a full view of the castle because of the blue shelter built right in front of it. I remember seeing a photograph of it taken by my friend a few weeks ago and I’m pretty sure the blue shelter wasn’t there at that time. Perhaps it was built to cater to the queue. After taking the Enchanted Airways which is a small family roller coaster, we went to watch the Shrek 4D show. Frankly speaking, the pre-show talk was way too long. We were brought into this empty room with a few big screens right at the top. I had a stiff neck after looking up for 15 minutes during the pre-show talk. The grandma standing behind us was getting tired as well. Seriously, no seats? The screen is way too high up and the speech was terribly long. My anticipation for the show decreased by a fair bit after the long speech. My verdict of the show: it was mediocre. Just rocking seats, splashes of water and maybe some wind. The 3D effect wasn’t fantastic either.

Mum suggested having an early lunch to avoid the lunch crowd. Since she wasn’t a fan of western food, we decided to have lunch at Hollywood China Bistro. On our way back, Sissy spotted this interesting sign and asked me to take a photograph of it. All shopping malls should be using this. Dolls FTW! We had Chinese noodles and dim sum which cost us SGD 30+ after deducting 30 bucks using the complimentary dining vouchers. Lunch was pretty good. The restaurant was beautifully decorated in red and gold (typical colours used in Chinese restaurants). In addition, the friendly and polite staff makes it a good dining experience for us.

Our next stop was at Jurassic Park. We went to watch the WaterWorld show and Sissy nearly fell asleep in there. I thought the show wasn’t too bad. Explosions, lots of water, stuns, rather good storyline and a wee bit of fireworks. The performers can really get the audiences to participate and at the same time, get them soaked as well. Lots of small children were crying halfway through the show. I’m not sure why parents will want to bring their young children to the show when they have been warned that this show involves lots of loud noises, explosions and requires parental guidance due to the use of (fake!) guns and stuff.

We were actually planning to ride the Canopy Flyer but the queue was an hour long. Since the park closes at 6pm, we don’t think there will be enough time so we skipped and proceeded to Dino-Soarin. The sun was blazing that day and I felt like I’m melting into a puddle of goo. Up next is the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure and I got to say this ride was a disappointment! Sissy wanted to get the poncho initially but we didn’t realise that we have to get it in the Jurassic Park merchandise store and not at the ride itself. Mum and I convinced Sissy that it will be fun to get wet because it’s no fun when we get off the ride dry. The lockers were rented at $4 for the first hour and since we were without the protection of the ponchos we rented one to keep our bags dry.

The first half of the ride was so slow and mundane. We were just floating down the river looking at (very) fake dinosaurs that open and close their mouths like robots. The raft entered a dark tunnel with flashing lights, a door opened and we were “flushed out” of the tunnel. The ride ended with a big splash and I was pretty much drenched. Even the raft ride at Sunway Lagoon is way better than this. Is this all they can come up with?

I tweeted that I almost died that day on the Revenge of the Mummy’s ride and it was true. i swear I’m never going to take this ride again. Like I said, I’ve a low threshold for thrilling rides and I’m surprised I still have my voice after screaming the entire time while I was on the ride. Just the walk from the main entrance of the ride to the actual queue took us about 15 minutes. A rather long walk I would say. To top if off, the passage way was really dark with lots of turns and corners. Interestingly, I saw someone in front of me wearing a pair of sunglasses in the dark. I wonder how he sees in the dark. Anyway, is the walk suppose to build up our tension for the ride? People that cut the queues really spoil the fun for me. I do not understand why some people let others cut the queue in front of them without saying a word. I would have told them off but I was too far away at that time.

In the Sci-Fi City, Battlestar Galactica was closed so there wasn’t much to see. Mum and Sissy went onto the Accelerator ride which has the same concept as the Mad Tea Party in Disneyland. Both of them said that it wasn’t much fun because it’s slow even when they control the speed manually. I didn’t take the ride because the last time I rode a similar ride at Escape theme park 10 years ago, I ended up puking really badly. It started to drizzle and we headed to New York because it was sheltered. We spend some time snapping away on our cameras. There was lots to see but nothing much to play.

The only attraction we went at New York was Lights, Camera, Action which actually showcases what happens to a boat house in New York City during a category 5 hurricane. The effect was nice and the sea look very realistic from the fake windows. But again, it wasn’t anything exciting. I was expecting more than just a few broken windows, fire etc.

It’s nearly 5 when we exited Lights, Camera, Action and we decided to go for a quick bite. We wanted to have tea at this princess-looking pink cafe, Hollywood Celebrity’s Cafe but after looking at the menus, we thought we should go for something fuller and cheaper. True to its name, the menus especially the price tags are really celebrities’ class.

We settled for Mel’s Drive-In. They have a shiny looking junk box and the retro interior decorations suits the theme very well! The servings are huge and very fulling. The place was pretty packed, perhaps due to the more economic price of the burgers. I caught the appearance of a few retro dancers right outside the dining place. I love their colourful costumes and how they tried to engage the audiences and get them to dance together as well.

With only an hour left, we went on a shopping spree. I love all the merchandise sold there! They have the best souvenirs such as toys, cushions, mousepads, pins, notepads, caps, t-shirts, towels, mugs and lots of other stuff. Admittedly, the best attraction at Universal Studios Singapore was their merchandises and not exactly the rides. Here’s the other joke of the day:

I was looking at 2 tees which look exactly the same with different price tags.

Me: Excuse me, may I know why these tees are priced differently? The size L tee cost SGD 21.90 while the size S tee cost SGD 23.90.

After pausing for a few seconds, he replied.

Staff: Oh, the smaller the tee, the more expensive is it because it’s more difficult to manufacture.

Me: Huh, okay. Thanks!

After I went home and look at the photos on my computer screen, I realise the size S tee was a men’s tee and hence it’s more expensive then the ladies’ size L tee. The ladies’ tee are priced at SGD 21.90 while the men’s tee are priced at SGD 23.90. So much for “the smaller the tee, the more expensive it gets”! He (the staff) was really friendly though but I just thought the above was hilarious!

With all the self control I had, I only bought 2 tees and a penguin clipboard + notepad. On the other hand, Sissy got a tee, pin and mousepad. I regretted not getting the mousepad. It’s really cute! Sissy’s going again next week so hopefully the stores will be open so that she can grab an extra for me. This concluded our day at Universal Studios Singapore. We didn’t manage to visit all the attractions due to time constraints. I wish the park would extend it’s opening hours till about 8 to 9 at night so that we’ve more time. Although I wasn’t too wow by the attractions, I had a rather enjoyable time. Maybe it’s my first time visiting a theme park, hence I don’t have a very high expectation. For more photographs, check out this album on my Flickr.

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3. Our DIY cake

On a side note, I actually drew the above illustration for my own Christmas cards but couldn’t find a inexpensive place to print it. There’s usually a minimum quantity of 100 to 200 and I don’t need that much. I only got to know of a shop at Bras Plaza that does printing for $1 per card with minimum spending of $30 from Ivy when we meet up for lunch last week. Hence, I will just leave the handmade cards for this year since it’s a bit too late to do that now.

I spent Christmas eve at home with my friends and family. We didn’t want to hang out at the parties due to the crowd. So Dad cooked steak and we had Christmas dinner at home. Michelle joined us for dinner and mahjong session as well. No turkeys on the table though.

We had a small gift exchange session and here’s Francis, Michelle and my sister with their presents. The panda Michelle’s hugging is from Chewy. He bought it in Hong Kong and she’s utterly soft and adorable. Definitely the cutest panda on earth.

My sister showing off her new iphone. She’s been waving it in front of me these past few days! I’m super envy because I’m dying to get my hands on an iphone. I’ll wait and get it next year.

It’s our custom to get a Christmas cake every year. Ta-da! This is our log mango mousse cake from The Icing Room. We couldn’t find a small log cake for 6 so we decided to get this instead. I was surprised when the cashier asked me if I want any candles. Does anyone put candles on Christmas cakes?

Joke of the day:
Mum: Is there cheese in the cake?
Dad: Yes, there is cheese in basement 1 of the cake.
Me: LOL! Our cake has basement 1, 3, 5 – mango mousse and basement 2, 4, 6 – chocolate sponge.

The cake is delicious though. Everyone gave the thumbs up for it.

I received this card from Huaian today. I was really touched. It has a photo of us taken 6 years back and he still has it sent all way from Australia. I love it Huaian! Thanks so much for the awesome card. I hope to see you back in Singapore in Feburary.

This is from my sister and her boyfriend, Francis. My sister gave me a beautiful necklace from Gold Heart which matches all the tank tops in my wardrobe.

That’s it for today. Hope you have fun on Christmas eve as well and have a great Christmas!

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1. Happy Merry Christmas
2. Christmas Gathering 2008
3. Happy New Year 2009

Anyway, I met up with Terry and Ivy yesterday for lunch at Marché and the three of us practically camwhore-ed for 3 hours! It was really fun though. You can check out Terry’s post for more details on what happened that day. Guys, we have to do this again some day. I mean camwhoring is no fun when you are doing it alone. It has to be in a group! If you haven’t try it, perhaps it’s time to start. Here’s a step by step instructions on how to camwhore:

Step by step instructions on camwhoring

Step 1: You will need a web cam, mobile with camera or any digital cameras.
Step 2: Look into the camera and smile. Please check the photos to make sure you are in it just in case the angle is incorrect and you ended up taking a photograph of the tree beside you.
Step 3: Click on the shutter button.
Step 4: Adjust the angle or change your facial expression.
Step 5: Click on the shutter button again.
Step 6: Repeat step 4 and 5 for another hundred times.

Congratulations, you have just learnt how to camwhore and have fun!

Photographs courtesy of Terry

On a side note, I know this post is pretty lame. I wrote it at 2 in the morning.

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You're Beautiful

The last time I was so addicted to a drama series was in February this year when I was watching Boys Before Flowers (Kgotboda Namja). The previous time it was Kim Bum in Kgotboda Namja and this time it’s Jang Geun Suk in You’re Beautiful (Minami Shineyo). Both are fantastic actors though I would say Jang Geun Suk is the better of the two.

The series is about the behind-the-scenes life of a fictitious idol group, A.N.JELL. Jang Geun Suk and Lee Hong Ki are in search of a new member for their idol group. However at the last minute, the member suffers an injury and his twin sister has to step in disguised as him. The plot maybe be a bit cheesy but it’s hilarious. I absolutely love Jang Geun Suk’s acting and it’s a must watch show if you are a fan of him. This series has quite a number of parodies and my favourites are SNSD’s Genie and Jang Geun Suk’s parody of So Ji Sub’s phone commercial. It’s good to have some some laughter everyday.

I rarely get so addicted to a drama series but this one is too good! One of my favourite songs in this drama is Lovely Day by Park Shin Hye. I really like the soundtracks for this drama especially Lovely Day because the music is very soothing. To top it off, Park Shin Hye has a great voice.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jang Geun Suk’s parody of So Ji Sub’s phone commercial is so hilarious. I think no one will ever feel the same listening to the song Breathless by Shayne Ward after watching this part of the show.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I can’t believe I’m watching the live streaming for this show every week (and watching it again on Viikii with English subtitles) even though I don’t understand Korean. I’m definitely rooting for the main leads – Jang Geun Suk and Park Shin Hye to be together. It’s going to be devastating if they don’t! Like I said, I’m a sucker for good endings and Jang Geun Suk has never gotten the girl before in all the shows he has starred in. Give him a chance dude, it’s time he gets the girl.

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Happy Birthday, Sharon

My favourite macro shot of the day

I really like this photo showing everyone's presence

Somehow they always laugh when I'm taking photographs of them

Getting really engrossed into the song

Peach Sundae - This ice cream is love!

Scallops and chicken baked rice

Delicious pasta

Group photo

We took a short walk from Orchard all the way to City Hall and I noticed they are putting up the Christmas decorations already. I have to say that the Santa isn’t adorable at all. A bigger head and a smaller body would definitely looks cuter than a smaller head and fatter body. On a random note, I couldn’t wait for Christmas to come. It’s the gift exchange season again and it’s time to love and share! Is there anyone in Singapore who would like to do a gift/card exchange?

Christmas decorations at Orchard Road

Yee Loong also gave me some tips on taking night shots and gave me a short lesson about shutter speed and aperture. I think Orchard is a good place to take night shots in Singapore. All the newly renovated buildings have fantastic lightings.

Orchard Central at night

Related posts:

1. Christmas Gathering 2008
2. “How do you know Christmas is coming?” meme
3. Farewell gathering for our dear friend

Just thought I would draw a different illustration for each of the “vote-for-me” advertisement. Please help vote for Amour Chaleur under hand drawing style in Best WordPress Design Award if you like this design. I would greatly appreciate it if you can drop me a vote! Thanks for everyone who liked this design and has voted.

Cupcake Mash

On a side note, I have destroyed all the previous premade layouts and have added a new one. I feel that the old ones are of poor quality as they were made by me more than 3 years ago and I didn’t liked them anymore. Thus, I decided to revamp the entire premade layouts section. But as I’m running out of time due to exams preparations, I only put up a new layout – Cupcake Mash. There are quite a number of new ones coming in June with WordPress compatible themes as well. Stay tune! Meanwhile, you can check out the preview and/or download it over here. @loveivy also gave me an idea to have a free clipart/illustration section for my visitors. I’m keeping this idea in mind and hopefully add it in during my June holidays.

Chinese sentences written by kids in local schools

I saw this in the local Chinese newspaper yesterday. After reading it, I can proudly say that my Chinese isn’t that bad. Yes, I’m a 100% Chinese. However, my command of the Chinese language (both written and spoken) isn’t that good. I’m only a grade B student in this language as compared to my good buddies like Sharon, Ben and Huaian who are extremely good in Chinese. But the Chinese standards of children these days are terrible. I think horrible would be a more appropriate word. Not to mention how sarcastic the remarks of the teachers are, but nevertheless it’s still humorous to read. I laughed non stop after reading it. I think the teachers who are marking those homework must either be fainting or having heart attacks. No wonder they always say, it’s not easy being a teacher especially a Chinese language teacher.

I think Chinese language is being neglected in school these days. Most of the time in classes are spend on the more “important” subjects like Math, English and Science. I think they are having this “speak Chinese” campaign now (mainly due to the increasing importance of China in the global economy so being able to speak and write Chinese is getting more important). But isn’t it too late? Shouldn’t the change be made in the classes instead?

Translating one of the easier ones (literally) from the news for those who don’t understand Chinese (translation may not be that accurate):

Student: My mother’s leg is slim and thick.
Teacher’s remark: So is it slim or thick?

I am not able to translate the rest because it loses its humour in English. Anyway, it’s entertaining to read such news but I’m still shocked by how bad the Chinese standard of children in Singapore are.

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Half Mock Grades

I am aiming for a 50 marks in my MA paper today. That’s my favourite subject and it’s the only subject that make sense to me. Plus, I am prepared to fail my POBF paper, I’ll be glad I didn’t get a 0 for that.

Anyway, I’ve got something funny to share after the rant about my results. I got this advertisement flyer at Raffles Place train station yesterday after school. I don’t usually look at it, but I browse through it on the way to the platform. It was from a hair and beauty saloon. I found something extremely hilarious about this flyer.

Flyer from a Saloon

• Sock Hair? Notice those words in Chinese means Short Hair.
• Men/Anty? Aunty? Ladies? Would I be bringing a bunny to a saloon to have their fur coloured? And only for aunties? Young teenagers, no?
• Highlight/Lowlight? It might be just me but I haven’t heard of anything called lowlight before. Is that a new method? Or … …? As per Kaylee, lowlights actually do exist, they make the hair colour darker.

Okay, I’m bad. But their flyer are even worse. I mean seriously, I understand that typographical errors are inevitable sometimes. But this is just too much. And only aunties? no office ladies when one of their shops is at the prime working area? Maybe they don’t do children business but aunty just isn’t the right word. Sock Hair? My hair is made from real human hair, not from socks. It doesn’t seems like a typo error to me. They have got some promotion from this flyer, but they aren’t promoting their services, their just promoting how unprofessional they are. They didn’t even proof read their flyers before distributing? What are your thoughts and interpretations to the above?

On a last note, I decided to join The Quilting Bee again (waiting for approval now), I used to be a member way back in the 2005 and 2006 if my memory didn’t fail me. I can’t pixel, yes I know that. My patch (and the bee linking to my approval quilt) was drawn in Photoshop but not by pixelling. I can’t pixel, it’s ugly. Anyway, it’s my first time drawing a panda and a bee. The bee has a weird colour I know… and this cute little fat bumble bee can be found on the top of the home page, near the welcome message and on the footer of the rest of the pages. Yes, my bumble bee flies.

My Bee and Panda Patch for The Quiliting Bee

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