Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Posted on January 27, 2012 by sugarstarry

So… The cliched saying ‘How time flies’ comes to surface during festive seasons like Christmas and Lunar New Year. Cliched, yes, but true. Looking back at the past never fails to make me feel all nostalgic. I’m sentimental like that While I’m glad my relatives are an awesome bunch of people (and I’m thankful for that), sometimes I wish I was much closer to them. I’m someone who believes in putting in effort for friendships/relationships but I guess fate and opportunity do play a part too. Nevertheless, I always enjoy myself during gatherings, though frankly I still find it a wee bit difficult breaking the initial ‘communication barrier’.

Before I forget…. Happy Lunar New Year everyone!

As usual, we bonded over gambling/blackjack! Our typical CNY routine. I got pretty lucky this year; I hit blackjack 5 times on day 1!! I’m always pretty unlucky when it comes to gambling so this was quite a pleasant change of luck for me, heh. My cousins were joking about how they’ll kick me out if I were to hit blackjack one more time :p

Me and my pretty cousins! (Missing Julie in this pic cos she came later!) Showed my CNY pictures to a friend and she commented how young my cousins look. They’re all in late 20s, and 3rd one from the left in this pic below is a mother of 2!!! Both my nephews are like 8 and 12 respectively :O

Wore my new dress on day 1! Loving it Especially the mesh details around the neck.

Me, my pretty cousins, and the cupcakes baked by my cousin on the extreme left!

Ah Gu calls us ‘The Cousin Four’ Used to hang out quite often when we were kids. Still remember sleeping over at their place and how the 2 boys NEED to sleep with BOTH the air-con & fan on -.- Looking at this picture makes me realized how grown up we are now!

Dad & Mummy

With my cousin Mag & 4th aunt Rosalind

Extended family on my mum’s side

HUAT AR!!!

Ending the post with….

A picture of me and my dream car!!!!! HAHAHAHA

But obviously I need to get my driving license first……. Bleh.

P.S Hope it has been a nice CNY break everyone! Time to snap back to reality.. Yikes.

P.P.S Currently addicted to the show – Pretty Little Liars!

Foot (Food?) Trip

Posted on January 22, 2012 by sugarstarry

Brought my tutee out for lunch after tuition yesterday! Had a nice time catching up with her We even got Sogurt! Double servings too haha if only it wasn’t that expensive… ($3/100g; including toppings!)

Met up with Shuang after!

Decided to be spontaneous and went on a foot(food?) trip! And boy, was it a FOOT trip indeed. We walked around Chinatown, headed to Maxwell after, where we had Beancurd (sadly, Laoban was closed so we had to make do with another brand which was NOT sweet at all!), Popiah & Fried Noodles! Following which we took a train to Raffles Place and walked randomly… Ended up at Clarke Quay where we sat by the river. Hah, I’m beginning to embrace random and spontaneous trips like this!

Soaking in the CNY festive mood

The vendors at Chinatown were pretty generous! They actually offered samples for us to try, without us even asking them to! Pleasant surprise Or maybe I have not attended enough of such ‘roadside markets’ to experience the generosity of these vendors.

Bought a Durian Crepe to munch on along the way!

We didn’t hit a single shopping mall! Took walks and explored the city instead. Pretty therapeutic. Gonna do this more often!

We were trying to take a photo of us with the lovely background when this friendly Australian uncle came and offered to help! And TADAH! A full length shot of us along the river

Reunion dinner in a bit….

GONG XI FA CAI!!

Colors and promises

Posted on January 20, 2012 by sugarstarry

Friday marks Tiago’s last day in S’pore! Brought him over to the coffee shop nearby my place for lunch Well, of course I had to let him try my favorite popiah! Hahaha. He claimed that he had enough of noodles (Nasi Goreng) in Indonesia (he has been traveling around Asia since last Dec! That’s 2 months already, how lucky) so I decided not to order Char Kway Teow. Besides popiah, we had Chicken with Glutinous Rice & Chwee Kueh too! Went over to get some CNY goodies (Pineapple Tarts, Almond cookies, Kueh Bahlu & Kueh Bankit) & took polaroids at the stall It’s funny how many of the (food) stuff in S’pore is known in various languages – English, Chinese, Malay, or even Dialects! That’s multi-ethnicity for you haha.

Bon Voyage, my friend!

Suddenly feeling excited to wear my new dresses! I didn’t specially got them for CNY; I just happened to be shopping & got them. As I grow older I feel that there isn’t a pressing need to purchase new clothes JUST for CNY. I’ve heard friends complaining about last minute shopping. I mean, shopping is supposed to be fun, not stressful! It defeats the purpose of shopping if one has to shop for the sake of it. Same goes for Christmas shopping. So yeah… Chill pill people! The most important part of CNY is catching up with relatives & eating goodies! (Or the excuse to. Heh.)

Ok this is random but gosh how I love my hair now! Took me 1.5 years to grow from shoulder length to the current length! Love the color too, hehe

Ending the post with a photo of me and Shuang

Have a fabulous Lunar New Year everyone!

/Edit: (Saturday) I’m meeting Shuang today! WOOOOOOO! Spontaneous (pretty much) meet up FTW!

7-UP!

Posted on January 19, 2012 by sugarstarry

Spent the Saturday helping out with the Exchange Orientation at Sentosa! So glad I signed up as a student leader and got a chance to mingle with the exchange students. Met Egyptians for the first time in my life! They’re pretty cool. In short, it’s a rather eye-opening experience and I enjoyed interacting with them! Sometimes I wish I had the opportunity to study abroad and experience school life with people from different parts of the world. But yeah I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.

Random thought but with my Mondays off, I wake up on Sundays feeling as if it’s a Saturday, and Monday as if it’s a Sunday. I reckon I’m too used to the Monday to Friday work week mentality..

Somehow I feel that this semester’s gonna be different. Apart from the fact that S’s on exchange at SMU. On a brighter note, I managed to swap into Bryan’s Biz Policy class! At least I don’t have to be ‘anti-social’ on Thursdays anymore. Really feels weird being quiet in class; it’s just so not me.

CNY’s approaching in a week! Mum baked pineapple tarts for the 2nd time this year. Our oven has been down since 2-3 years ago so she hasn’t baked them proper for a few years now.

“Never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret.” – Pretty Little Liars. An American TV serial. Watched it for the first time and I’m already hooked! Currently on the 3rd episode already… (P.S It’s 40 odd mins per episode)

‘Stole’ this photo collage off S’ blog!

Here’s my humble attempt:

Feeling pretty chirpy lately! Just the right mood for CNY.. What perfect timing

And I’m so glad to have friends/made new friends in all my classes this semester. YAY!

Keeping room only for the Best

Posted on January 13, 2012 by sugarstarry

Sometimes I should really learn to expect less from others, especially if I wouldn’t want others to expect a lot from me either. Like what S told me, “Sometimes we end up feeling disappointed because we are willing to do so much more.” So very true. Nobody likes the feeling of being unappreciated, and that feeling tend to surface when one puts in effort but the amount of effort reciprocated fails to match up. In short, one should learn to ‘give no fuck’ at times. “And not a single fuck was given.” Maybe this is the key to a less disappointed self.

Dinner date with my dearest Buddeh yesterday! She spent her last hour in the office rushing her spreadsheets just so she can meet me (and avoid me having to wait for her), how touching! :’) I was pretty hungry from the long day in school (2 back to back seminars from 12-530pm) & I went to grab my favorite raisin & walnut bun from Four Leaves as soon as I reached NEX! Being a typical ‘kiasu’ Singaporean, I went to Qiji to chop us seats & ordered popiahs for both of us! I think the people must be wondering why I ordered 2 separate plates when I appeared to be alone. Started eating first cuz the popiahs were TOO tempting. Like what buddeh told me, “it’s a torture to stare at food and not eat them!” Hahaha

Beginning to like the popiahs from Qiji more and more! They are much less oily than the one from nearby my place.

Happy Pills

Stopped by for Sogurt! (Yami is still the best though!)

Glad to know that at the end of the day, I still have my pillars of support and they are the ones who matter the most to me And what they have in common is that they make me feel appreciated. Guess I do expect quite a bit, but I can safely say that I do put in quite a lot of effort in most of my friendships.

I’ve tried. Usually the one to initiate but don’t take the amount of attention and effort I devote for granted. From now on, I shall make a mental note to be less initiative & focus my attention on only the Best. Why should I let myself be affected by people who don’t know how to appreciate?

“Keeping room only for the Best.

And not a single fuck was given.”

One Step Closer

Posted on January 10, 2012 by sugarstarry

It was hard to hear, but I needed to hear that. Guess I’m aware of it all along but part of me refused to believe it. In a way, I’m glad school started. If only it could continue like this (no tutorials & assignments).. It feels nice catching up with friends over lunch without having to worry about projects, assignments and the like!

Discussing grad trip makes me feel so excited! A talk with a friend today made me realized I might have been too ambitious. There are just soooo many places worth visiting; I guess one has to prioritize. 1.5 more years to go – I need to make good use of this period to SAVE UP!!! (Sometimes I really wonder where all my money go to. I need some financial help man! Can’t imagine how I’ll be handle my finances after I start working if I can’t even handle mine now :/)

Europe here I come (in 1.5 years’ time)!!

Every night in my dreams I do a BAD-ASS FLIP

Posted on January 8, 2012 by sugarstarry

I once came across a video of how (women’s) artistic gymnastics has evolved over the years. In the past, it was really about the grace, flexibility, technique – in short, it certainly did consist of the ‘artistic‘ component. But (there is always a ‘but’ eh) nowadays it’s really more about the power, as evident from the number of flips, intensity and difficulty level. There were flips in the past but they were usually accompanied by elements of grace. I don’t know how else to explain, and I can’t seem to find the video anymore ANYWAY, you’ll get an idea of what I’m talking about after watching this video (to the end). The routines in 1960s-1970s were different from those in 1990s and beyond, especially the Uneven Bars! The bars were so much closer then.

I told my friends that when I have kid(s) next time, I’ll definitely make him/her/them do gymnastics. They were like, “Omg your child(ren) very poor thing.” HAH what was it again they say about parents wanting their children to turn out to be what they wanted to be when young but could never achieve? Yeah, that right there applies to me.

Met up with the SIMPSONS facis for dinner at Old Airport Road on Friday! Awesome bunch of peeps It’s amazing how we’re all still pretty tight after so long! Whatsapp has a played a part I must say. Our group chat really keeps us going (one way or another).

I don’t have the group pic with me (yet), but here’s a picture of Maggie Facis!

Thinking of going Japan/HK/NYC for holidays this summer (before internship)! NYC is a little far-fetched though.. Considering I’m saving up for my grad trip. But we shall see how it goes! Hope I’ll be more motivated than ever this semester. Self discipline is the KEY to success (for me at least). Keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll have nice project mates (like I did last sem ).

Power of the mind. Getting better but still I fear.