Crepes at Canele

Met up with Gwen and the rest of the clique at Raffles City for dinner. Esp. looking forward to meeting with Gwen cos she had so much to share abt her recent trip to the US. Anw dinner was at Aerin's which I found the food to be just average, though the ambience was really good. Highlight was eating at Canele where they had really good crepes, especially the Nutella one. You can't go wrong with Nutella!! We shared another 2 more crepes, an Exotique with a fruity taste and another one which was just so-so (can't even remember the name)...lol..

And if you are not convinced, check out these webpages for the certified yummy-ness of the crepes...
http://www.canele.com.sg/
http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/canele_restaurant_raffles_city/

Monday blues?!

Have you ever felt damn sian to start a new week of work or sch? Have you ever felt damn sian to get out of bed and not able to sleep in late? Feeling the blues....but I'm seeing the greens on my blog now....muhahaha.....okok.....lame...

How do margarita, porn and board games come together?

I guess once you start working, weekends are really something that one looks forward to. And especially more cos I was gonna meet up with my 4D classmates. And to make it even more special, Alex was around cos he's in S'pore for a 2 month internship, so it's the best chance to catch him here. Besides, it's also a good chance to catch up with so many good ol' friends, most of whom were very much busy with their own internships when I was away on exchange. The usual gang was there...HH, Bones, Chongwei, Xikun, Dash, ZQ, XM and our special guest Alex.

XM, ZQ and Bones

Dash, Alex and me (HH mysteriously disappeared)
Trying to squeeze in to take a photo :p

And so the night was spent at Cafe Iguana chowing down jugs of margaritas and beer. (It's Happy Hour anw and my share for the night's entertainment and drinks were picked up by HH cos I got him the beer stein from Munich :p) Man....gotta love the margaritas there...and we were soon up to our usual 4D nonsense again...CW was especially excited to send us porn clips of some NTU girl via Bluetooth, which Alex and XM were eager to receive, and we even tried sending to strangers on the Bluetooth nework!

Our next stop was at Minds Cafe, where we spent the rest of the night or more like the wee hours of the morning playing board games. Games like Sequence (gr8 starter game for warm-up!), Citadels (played b4 in sec. sch and enjoyed this the most), Diplomacy (boring shit sia....involves a voting game for rules to be passed...we unanimously voted not to continue with the game, much to HH's despair...hahaha) and Saboteur (fun game of dwarven mining and sabotage).

All in all, a great get-together again for our 4D gang!

NYC greetings

Really nice to receive another postcard...this time...surprise surprise...from Gwen! Coming from New York City! Sure looks like she had alot of fun over there....man....I wonder when will be my chance to visit the U S of A? Some day perhaps....:p

And busy days start...now!!

First day of work in industrial attachment in Exxon. Yes...you heard it...finally started on the attachment after just 1 week of rest from SEP. Crazy....yea....think so....and this really means I will be super busy till the day I graduate. (with a back to back school term and a FYP, and probably HR night classes....argh....just thinking abt the workload is gonna gimme a headache)

Nevertheless first day of work ran into a bit of hiccup, with several password resets and frustrating calls to the help centre...hey maybe i became an instant celebrity with them today. Spoke to 3 different help desk personnel for the same prob. Hmm...not a very good way to start off like that...hahaha...

I'm over at the processing engineering side with Zhiwen, Angela and 2 other guys from NTU. Oh...and Kinwee is just around the corner....and at the corner....(cos his desk is literally at the corner). So at least I have good company for the rest of the IA. Not sure what lies ahead for the rest of the days, but it's sure gonna be more packed than ever...

Well....at least for a start...this IA will force me back into my proper sleep pattern!!

HAHAHA!! Why so serious?!? The Dark Knight rockz!!

Just caught the Dark Knight in the theatres..a movie which I really wanted to watch and hyped up over. I must say it definitely did not disappoint. I remember watching the original Batman movies from the 1980s directed by Tim Burton and it was great cos it had a really dark tone to it...Batman Begins brought it to another deeper level by exploring the origins of Batman....and now The Dark Knight goes even further, so much so that it explores several moral issues and personalities of the different characters of the show to a whole new level. While that may sound super cheem to those who probably want another pop-corn chewing, super action packed superhero comic flick, I certainly enjoyed the whole darker, bleaker tone taken to this film.

The Joker is really the main reason why I wanted to see the film. I remember Jack Nicholson's funny and stylish portrayal of the Joker in the 80s film but Heath Ledger's Joker is one mean psychopathic killing clown. Lemme just say that the Joker steals every scene whenever he appears. It is really just that fabulous, although the other characters were played out nicely too.

These 2 reviews I seen so far kinda summarises my thoughts on the film.
http://movies.ign.com/articles/891/891359p1.html
http://movies.ign.com/articles/884/884876p1.html

My take on it: Great acting, good action, tight storyline, superb writing and scenes that will leave you a bit disturbed and questioning morality for a bit. Just go watch the film!

Weekend 1 in SG

Short early morning trip to CSC for the Sunday flea market....it's been a long time I've been there and it's certainly great that there's even more Transformers products on the market now..and for even cheaper prices (some even go for less than half of that found in retail stores!) Not only that, I met Edwin there, a long lost army camp-mate in 30 SIB. Well...actually I did not know him that well cos I was ORDing when he first came in but he provided a very informative yet bleak outlook on my future and upcoming NSman days. Apparently the new brigade commanders and S-es are super "on" people, which means tough days for future ICTs and also means sai kang for men and specs like me.....sighz....watever happened to good ol' 30 SIB?

Afternoon was spent with Kinwee shopping around Orchard for polo-tshirts.....Orchard Road feels the same...it's like every city has this main shopping street area that every tourism board would like to tout after running arnd so many cities...S'pore is no exception....

Highlight was more of the dinner in the evening, where we went to this place called Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar at Raffles City. It's a very Japanese Marche concept where you are given this card and then go about to the various stores to pick your food and paying at the end of it. Variety was ok but of cos a tad bit expensive. Shared sashimi with Kinwee as it's something we all missed overseas. Had my fill of Bamboo BBQ Eel Rice which I thought was yummy and the pricing was just right. Paired it with other stuff like the ebi yakitori, prawn with bacon and scallop on the skewer to finish up my main course. Desert was nicely round up with us taking up all the different kinds available. I had the one that resembled ice kachang but filled with red beans, green tea paste and green tea ice cream, Kinwee took the Matcha float with green tea ice-cream, Kendrick had Red Bean and Mochi with even more green tea ice cream and Tony took the mango ice kachang one.....which I personally found the best out of the 4.

For more pics of what we ate, visit this really cool blog http://eateatenate.blogspot.com/2008/04/shokudo-japanese-food-bazaar-spoilt-for.html

My body clock's screwed!

Argh!! Have not been sleeping too well these past few days since returning to S'pore. Slept at super odd timings lke 5am in the morning or waking up at 3 pm in the afternoon.....or even when i tried to sleep early at 10pm, ended up waking at 4am in the morning....hmm....how the heck am I going to get back into the momentum of things?

Okok...I'm not bragging here....honestly....

Results for the mods taken in Loughborough out!! Did unexpectedly well for all my mods....3 A+ for the 3 technical elective mods, an A for Chemical Engineering and Society and a B for Management and Organisation. In Loughborough, it's A+ for 80 marks and above, A for 70 - 79 and B for 60 - 69. And there's no bell curve like in NUS. But frankly, I do not think it's a true test of my abilities cos no matter wat...the workload in Loughborough will and can never ever compare to tt in NUS.

But lemme be happy for a bit for now...it's after all....the very first A and A+ that I get from my mods....something which will never happen in NUS....

Slowly...and one step at a time....

Went down to do my medical checkup in NUS. Large group of freshies abound doing theirs too. Was mistaken for a freshie...haha....cos i looked young? Well not exactly...more because they could not find my matric number in the records...the record din exist cos of my SEP (give an absence of leave status)

Anw....the doc sounded really gay...he had this really gayish voice as he did his diagnosis plus he was touchy touchy on my wrist as he was talking....commented on my tan tt i got from Spain....shit....y do i always have to deal with this sorta shit all the time?!?! Haiz...

Met up with Shiwei to pass her the chocs and Welly for lunch. Quite unexpected that the first person from the Loughborough gang that I meet in Singapore would be Shiwei...but anw she did dispense some really good advice...about taking things slowly and one step at a time and not getting myself burnt out...so thanks alot girl!

Other muses...West Mall has a bit of changes too...EasyCut moved upstairs instead of the first floor and they have this whole new revamped image. Heck...even the arcade upstairs now taken over and they have their games updated...(at last!)

Things change....don't they?!

Lotsa things have changed, i feel....and it's only been barely a day since I returned to Singapore...some ranting here....

1) Dad's car broke down...so it's a rented one for now....feels more comfy though...haha

2) My home desktop is dying on me....with super low virtual memory...(omg how did my bro and dad abuse my comp?!?)

3) My TV......still as chui as ever.....although I must say I missed watching TV when I was in the UK.....first show I randomly tuned in to was this 9pm channel 8 drama with beach, sand, beach volleyball and girls in bikini....wow!

4) Room and house layout changed quite a bit...lotsa moving about and packing as I was away as it seems....

5) My toy collection's messed up....their limbs and poses are all over the place...severely abused by my mum's cleaning and my neglect...hahaha....damn I have to get my glass cabinet!!

But it's real good to step back into my room, my very place where I seek inner peace, have a bit of privacy and get away from the hustles and bustles of the outside world...although I must say that moving back in after taking temporary shelters in so many hostels makes me feel a bit.....grounded and alien. I mean......wow....is this really my room?!?

Oh and kinda miss my roomie's kaobeing and his music blasting (wide range though constantly replayed) in the background...(omg can't believe i am actually saying this)....so while there was a loss of privacy during the past 5 months...I must say I was constantly entertained by his antics...

Ok now to the more serious stuff I guess....first day in S'pore was to head down to town to settle some matters and to take the drug test for the upcoming internship. I dunno y....but as I walked through the very heart of the financial district...it was kinda odd to see so many Asian faces again....and even more oddly to be exposed to Singlish speaking once more...I even had super huge difficulty in understanding what the bank officer was trying to tell me in her Singlish or wat the kopi-tiam uncle at Lau Pa Sat was trying to tell me....have i lost touch or wat? And to make matters worse...felt kinda claustrophobic as I walked arnd....I think I must have gotten used to the wide open spaces that Loughborough has to offer, well, in fact wat Europe has to offer in general...it's like everything's so majestic and breath-taking there.....and back in Singapore here....everything feels packed up and cosmopolitan in our busy little city. Lifestyles are also different...it's laid-back and relaxed whereas it's "rush-rush rush" here...

I actually stared long and hard thinking which line I had to take to go from Raffles Place to City Hall....(bloody hell it's one stop for shit's sake....wtf was i thinking?!?)...all the train taking in Europe has made me a bit washed out....the Singapore Flyer is already up and running....the bridge over to Suntec was demolished and there's this new underpass now....raffles city shopping centre now has a new platform rest area at the top....funan centre also has a bit of a slight revamp......milk is more ex now in stores....the new mrt stations in some MRT line has been named (saw this from the news).....so many changes in this span of 5 months....

The highlight today was meeting up with Kinwee, Victor, Simon and Tony. It's been a long time since I last saw them and it was really gr8 to meet up. Kinwee looks really happy and radiant....but he's got this huge scar on the cheek from some motor accident (makes him look more rugged though..haha)....tony's real happy that he's getting more life in his internship, after previous ranting abt his boring life in NUS last sem (and life = more girls in his dept)...victor is as usual talking about modules and FYP and supplying a whole load of info for the next semester (the way he does this and gathers info still amazes me to this day)....simon is still very serious yet a great person to talk to (always enjoy the bus ride home talking to him)....everybody's trading gossips and latest news abt chem eng ppl here and there which I found entertaining.....but....BUT.....somehow as I sat through the whole conversation...felt kinda drained.....maybe it's the jet lag or maybe it's becos I have lost touch with everyone and I am seriously not up to date with wat has been going on...and yes.....lots have been going on I can tell u....the world ain't gonna stop for u just becos u are away....life goes on....and esp. so here in sunny ol' busy Singapore...

Yes....I am seriously lost in our busy little city here......things change...or have they?!? Maybe I am the one who has changed.....Welcome back to reality...

Homecoming

Returned to London the day before from my last trip in Norway to meet up with Weisiong and Andrea. Feeling kinda paiseh that they had to drag my huge luggage from their friend's place to our hotel as I was meeting them at the hotel directly instead. (It's 30 plus kg btw...tt fat silver case of mine) So thanks to them alot! Anw...hate the road directions in London..it's messy and the house numbers don't run in order....45 belgrave road = almost 2 blocks away from 30 something belgrave road with some eccelston square or junction or street placed in between....and I hate the feeling of lugging my backpack to search for hostels and looking super lost in the middle of the night...

Anw all was cool when I managed to find the hotel...hmm...w8 a min...ain't realy a hotel....quite a run-down place....but at least we had the whole place to ourselves for repacking our stuff to go b S'pore. After repacking, my silver case weighed 31.8kg and my backpack was 22.3 kg.....wows!! How the heck did I come up with so much stuff?!?

The next morning on the 14th was total logistics movement to Heathrow Airport. It's super super tiring to even lug our stuff for abt 100m to the Victoria Coach Station (I had the hard case, my 100 litres backpack, my laptop bag and a shopping bag!!) but we eventually made it!!

Spent the whole day in Heathrow Airport camping with Weisiong as we waited for our evening flights...our dear gohwees felt a bit emo that we were going to leave...as for me...din realy know wat to feel....feeling a bit numb and mixed...constantly had the thought that "where it all started....now ends here"

13hr direct flight where I slept most of it, watched a bit of movies and talked to the really nice lady beside me who also happens to be a chem eng by training and dabbling in waste enginnering stuff now...but yah....slept through most of the journey....pretty much like the first time i came to the UK. Feels like a total dream to me, a lovely dream though....this whole SEP experience...sleeping on board the first time to the UK and waking up to a whole new magical wold of discovery and likewise another sleep on the journey home to awaken to reality.....will things ever be the same again? Haha....I really dun know....

Anw...I was glad to finally see my family at the arrival gate...and we settled down for some good ol' Singapore food in the food court, where I had ban mian, popiah and ice kachang....each for less than a pound!! Yeah!!

Dad and Mum looked radiant (omg...Mum put make-up) ....Eugene's hair even longer now and he's brimming with energy (he sld be cos he's now a freshie!!)...but I am super tired and burnt out from the travelling and not washed up for the past day on the plane....and I am a very old, going-to-be-4th-yr student le.. :p....haha so I look awfully terrible in the photos....(aiyoh...Mum very insistent on taking photos....)

I'm back....finally back at home in sunny ol' Singapore now!