Wednesday, December 30, 2009

sharon: thanks (: we need to have a meal soon! on one of my off-days ok!

nush: haha, why only next year? you probably won't see me unless you peer into the kitchen or shout from in front of the counter for me. and WE STILL HAVE OUT GEOG SLEEPOVER UNPLANNED!

suenli: Haha! that's mostly what I've been making the so far! but, sad to say the bread isn't mine, I only make it pretty and edible and look like bread. haha.

I should be sleeping now. I want to sleep. But I thought I should at least update people about my baking life so far since everyone's so interested in it(: I've only managed to blog about it today, after 4 days of work, as it really is tiring, and well, i've been out a lot. Plus, I've got an off day tomorrow [which is  going to be spent with my mom shopping in JB. tiring...], so I can afford to sleep later a little.

I've mostly been cutting wassants[the most popular item from provence], rolling hundreds a day, probably up to a thousand a day soon. As I said it's rather tiring, since I've gotta stand for about 8 hours straight a day (excluding luch break), so my knees started to ache, and so does my back and shoulders at the end of the day. But despite that, I guess I still like the job, not just because I get to bake, but the people working there are all real nice too! Somehow, most of the staff are my age, like Angela, Livia, Rui Qi, Win, and probably Zahana, and then there's the younger Shaun, and probably 30s, my supervisor and the other baker. So I've been getting along with them quite well, and losing the shyness. Vincent, the other baker, is quiet. rarely talks unless he has to, but speaks chinese. Hence, I gotta speak to him in chinese, my almost non-existent chinese. Plus, he's a little negative, I guess due to the pent up exhaustion he has been under for working without days of and rest [really pity him as he was the sole baker before I arrived, and had to do EVERYTHING by himself.]

I guess I could say I'm pretty excited to work on thursday, especially since kris is working there with me too now!

Friday, December 25, 2009

I feel a little dumb. haha. was trying to call the S'ore Discovery Centre to check if they were open today, cause my mom wants to go watch Avatar in 3D, but I always couldn't get through. AND, so I went to check the site again, and it was because I was calling the fax number instead.

well, it's Christmas Eve, I'm blogging at home, unemployed,  with no plans for the day besides going to watch Avatar in 3D with my family later today. It feels so weird to just have time to sit at home and slack. Or rather, have nothing to do. I was supposed to have plans to go for a job training this afternoon, but decided I didn't want to take this job up.

The job ad for 'Project Assistant' got my hopes up early last week, and so I applied. I wasn't provided with much information, even the company's name, and was called to go for an interview at Eunos. Hmm. But I went anyway, didn't think much about it at first. But alas! I felt a little cheated after, because rather than a job interview, it was more like a sales pitch to join the company instead. It's a Sales and Marketing firm as they call it, and uses network marketing strategies, which online, more known as Multi-level Marketing(MLM) firms. Such pushy and exploitive sales tactics, I don't want to be part of it. So back to square one at finding a job that can accommodate my jap classes in jan, and hockey trainings with crescent.

As for my social life the past week, it's been varied. From ice skating with Trud, Tabs and Jill (plus getting two huge purple bruises on my knees which everyone has to ask about), to hockey outing with the NJ team at swensons, to my aunt's wedding lunch at my grandmother's place (and we didn't even get to see the bride on the wedding day).
-24th Dec '09
-------
Another day later, and it's Christmas.In a little more than 24 hours, I'm still not done with this post, and more importantly i'm not unemployed anymore (: Ok, the pay isn't very good, but it's at least something I'm interested in. Being a baker at Petit Provence, Vivocity outlet, you'll see me there starting tomorrow! Well, it changes a lot of things for me, such as not being able to go down for hockey trainings unless I get day offs on those days, which I have already reserved Tues and Fridays for Jap classes. Wish me luck!

Continuing from above, I have watched Avatar in 3D, and I would have LOVED the movie, if not for the 3D effects. Not saying that the effects made the movie bad, and the effects were nothing much anyway, but the problem was that I got motion sickness halfway through the movie. ugh. It brought me back to when I had seasickness in the open seas during YLTC or OBS, I can't remember which. Felt like puking, but didn't. But still, I loved the graphics and plot of the whole story. It just makes me want to be a Na'Vi too, having all that freedom in the forest with such beautiful sights.
-------
Rewinding backwards a little, I have to say that this week, was the first time I was ever stressed about baking. Worrying whether there was enough time to finish baking everything, whether there was enough ingredients, whether the stuffs are fully cooked. Even made me miss lunch because there wasn't time to cook lunch. But all went well enough in the end I guess, with them all coming to the house to collect the stuff, while I delivered the last order to a friend's place later at night. Let's allocate more time to bake 20 brownie cups, 37 cookie mans and 28 cupcakes, which definitely needs me to start earlier than 9.30am in the morning to finish by 6pm.

More baking was done the sunday before for the Crescent Hockey Carnival. Baked 90 muffins, excluding the first dozen that wasn't sellable. But more importantly was the event itself. I was put in charge of selling the food, with puisheen, don and sakinah helping me. There was a little trouble selling a third of the muffins in the end, but I guess it couldn't be helped. And then I got informed that i'll be 'running the show' next year according to Nordin. It kinda put some pressure on. I mean, it feels as if coach still sees me as a captain, which I guess I am a little surprised, but glad in a way that he acknowledges me, since I left the team to come to NJ. That really made me think that day, about what I really feel about joining NJIP. I always told people that I came only because I didn't want to do my O levels, and didn't miss crescent much after the first few months. My biggest regret however, still is the fact that I left my team, when I was the captain. It felt like I disappointed them, and for once, I didn't follow up on my responsibilities. But I am happy for the reason that I still feel like part of the team, albeit a little more detached as compared to the 15 of them who went through B div together. WELL, always look towards the future and not regress yea? And so, bring on the challenge next year!
------
Lastly, I was gonna talk about the one-night trip up to Malacca with my family, but I kinda lost my train of thought on that matter already. Besides my brother doing most of the driving, while I sat in the passenger seat, and my parents in the rear seats (what a funny arrangement you might think), I thought it was a rather uneventful trip. It being one of the unhealthiest days of my recent life (we ate Mary Brown's fried chicken on the first night, next day lunch was melaka hawker food at Newton Food centre, haha!, and dinner was Cze char in Singapore.), and the day I killed the most brain cells with my constant sneezing from sinus, I bought a new pair of black jeans and 3 new t-shirts. I really ought to update my wardrobe with different things now :/

And yes, my brother got into OCS. Congratulations. Why am I not surprised?

Saturday, December 19, 2009

back from malacca.
STB assessment centre over
observed many things within my family on this short trip
brother-OCS
technology embracement

shall explain in detail another day

Sunday, December 13, 2009

I should just give up on going to a UK university. It was just an aspiration i suppose. Just another option to not stay in Singapore. [Not that I hate my home country or anything, I just want to see the world.]


It was an eventful morning today [or make that yesterday]. Ms Shawna Lim's wedding!
Congratulations Ms Lim & Mr Daniel Hew[i'm not sure if i got the name right:/ ]
A happy day it was supposed to be, but it didn't start too well with me, from outfit, to the mysterious case of the missing ez-link card, to my frustrations with public transport. But those issues aren't the focus of the post, so I shan't go into details and whine.
It seems rude of me, but somehow, I kept comparing the service to Ms Tay's wedding earlier this year. Perhaps it was  because it was the only other teacher's church wedding I've attended, and my lack of experiences in church weddings anyway. Held at Paya Lebar Chinese Methodist Church, it was my first time stepping into a Chinese church, and listening to the ceremony in chinese. I did feel a little out of place, with me almost effectively monolingual right now. There were translations, and I still could understand what the pastor was saying, but the weirdest thing was hearing my english-speaking econs teacher speak in dialect. No, I didn't hear her speak chinese, because, even cuter, was that the husband said his vows and spoke to the audience in chinese, while she did likewise and replied, in english. Haha. She was really pretty and demure looking in her dress, but once she started speaking, it was totally back to Ms Econs teacher as we know her; straight, direct to the point, speed-talking! haha! The few of us, her students, managed to get a picture with her after the lunch, before we left. Sigh, what a sweet day it was supposed to be.

*ranthotsunwalkinginheelswithoutezlinkcardrant*

Friday, December 11, 2009

hello! it's been a while now.
and GRADUATION NIGHT is over!!
oh yes, i've been busy busy, baking, shopping, slacking. fretting.
A little more than a week has passed since the last post, and since then, some things have changed. like, how i'm OFFICIALLY FREE FROM A LEVELS, SATs are done!, and so is grad night, and bakesale is underway!

Warning: Exteremely long, draggy post ahead. Do not read when short on time, only when you are terribly free and bored with your own life and is interested in mine, read at your own risk.

it took me this long to type this post due to me being lazy to type out an ultra long post complete with pictures, plus my typing speed has been reduced dramatically from typing inactivity. Now, to facilitate my memory bank, we shall go in chronological order, starting from

30st Nov, Monday.
With only one paper to go, the hockey girls went down to CCAB early in the morning to join the juniors' training (we were still late anyway...) george was around, so we hit around by ourselves on half the pitch, did passes, the juniors did their own drills with george. played a mini 3v3 game with the juniors, on like 1/8th the pitch? sighs. what terrible waste of pitch. SAJC had booked the pitch after us, so george couldn't drag, hence we girls went for lunch at adam food centre after.
After much delaying, I followed vinnie to school to mug for bio MCQ in the canteen while she had consult with a teacher. I did only one paper in that uh, 4-5 hours I was sitting there? Mostly attempting to sleep. Didn't even touch the hugeass SATs book i borrowed from matt's friend and dragged around (for a few days too, thinking i would open it.) Went home before the sidegate closed, feeling so underproductive. But it's just Bio MCQ right?

1st Dec, Tuesday
I decided to go down for training in school again this time, as an excuse to stay in school to mug and make up for the previous day. Since George wasn't going to be around, it was another incentive. Derek and Felix came along too, and after that hot hot training under the sun(which i got a mild sunburn from -_-), we had Cai Fan for lunch! yum. Talked in the canteen while it rained, so the guys couldn't go home, and when it did stop, I went up to the library to join the library gang to mug. It was a revelation that day - SH1s have compulsory study sessions in the library ( i believe they're basketballers). But other than library gang (H3 econs people), bio people (me and gwen), and basketballers, there weren't anyone else again. Bottomline, unproductive again. did another paper, slept, and went home early.

Met the Crescent Hookers for dinner at Spageddies (O. Central )! Had a nice dinner, nice chat with everyone at Starbucks, before I had to leave cause my parents insisted on picking me up (and then reprimanding me for going out before exams are over -_-

@ Spagheddies!

2nd Dec, Wednesday- one day to Bio MCQ paper
Ariel's sendoff! Went to the airport to say farewell to ariel who's going back to Vietnam. GONNA MISS YOU SO MUCH FASHION ADVISOR! Yes, dear ariel's my personal fashion advisor and the coolest fashionista I know! I arrived late (seems to be a habit of mine now), joined the class girls at Popeye's, before helping ariel check in. There were a few problems, but all ironed out before she went in the gate. See you again next year celebrity!
 
gonna miss you ARIEL!<3

so after she left, we, the class girls, headed to T3 to sightsee a little, while I sat at coffeebean waiting for them as i tried to do Bio. Yes, i know, what a killjoy I am. Went home soon after because I couldn't keep awake. So much for Bio Preparation.

3rd Dec, Thursday - Bio Paper 3 day, day of end of A levels!
The end of A levels was nothing memorable, besides sitting at a table in the hall for an hour and 15 mins. Perhaps because we started going out and relaxing the week before, that when the paper ended, there didn't seem to be this overwhelming sense of relief that I expected to wash over me. So I went out with Vinnie only - to watch New Moon. I wouldn't say I regret watching it, because the purpose of watching a bad movie was to 1) accompany vinnie, 2) so that I don't have to read the book to find out what the hype is about. Why I found the movie bad? 1) the actor (specifically whats-his-name-who-acted-as-cedric-diggory-in-harry-potter) did not make a hot-drop-dead-gorgeous-i-must-fall-in-love-with-you vampire. 2) the plot was seriously unrealistic.I don't get the fall-in-love-to the point of madness of the female lead. 3) uh, actors were too stiff in acting, little variation in emotions and expressions. If I were to rate the movie, I'd give it ONE star- for the beautiful scenery.

I literally dragged vinnie around orchard after that, which i feel terribly guilty for, since she looked pretty tired. I was looking for shoes to match my prom dress, so we moved from Cineleisure (where we caught the movie), to Heeren, to Wisma. That took about 3 hours? It's because of my indecisiveness and terrible feet structure that I took so long (plus there were many shoe outlets with pretty but EXPENSIVE shoes), so I let her off at the MRT, while I went around Ion, then as a last resort, to Fareast Plaza. That's where I found my shoes, after 4 hours of searching. Plain, black pumps, not too uncomfortable, and flexible to wear with almost any outfit. Took a bus to Robinsons, bought my makeup, then headed home, exhausted.


shoes XD

4th Dec, Friday
Even though i was exhausted the day before, I didn't sleep till..5am. Not from insomnia, but K drama. Suen got me hooked onto the Korean drama "You're Beautiful", about a girl cross dressing as her brother in an all-male idol group. It's pretty good, and addictive. I've finished the series since then, and uh, it caused me to get distracted from stuff such as working on my prom dress and baking teresa's cupcakes.

Teresa and Anne came over for lunch, specifically Pre-Prom-Preparation. Basically trying on our dress, make-up, hair and shoes for prom. I was more busy cooking, washing the dishes and trying to hem my dress (a time-efficient alternative to making a brand new dress), think Cinderella and her two step sisters preparing for the ball. There's pictures with teresa to prove the scene. haha. Went well enough, completed teresa's cupcake order before she had to rush home. Anne stayed a little longer, and we continued watching "you're beautiful". HAHA.


teresa's order of vanilla cupcakes.


you're beautiful <3


i love Shin Woo and Jeremy <3 (2 guys on extreme left)


5th Dec, Sat. - SATs.
If you have not realized, I've only mentioned SATs once before in this post. And on this day, I took my first SAT I paper, which I only studied the night before. Haha.  I wonder how the results will turn out to be. Woke up early and headed to Starhub Centre to take it, while I knew others were heading to other centres such as St Francis for their own SATs. Coincidentally, Teoh Guan ( 2008 Lignum OGL), was taking the test in the same room as me too! haha.


Went Spotlight at PS after to buy more prom stuff, technically, only ribbons for my heels. but that took me an hour anyway -_-. Did a little grocery shopping before my brother picked me up, then headed home, and spent the rest of the afternoon to finish the K drama mentioned above.

6th Dec. Sun.
Baking Day! For gowri's order of Chocolate Cupcakes with Orange Frosting (which she totally forgot to pick up, haha!), and experimented with some muffins that just failed. Played with my newly bought gum paste to make christmas decorations for my bakesale too! That's about it really. oh, and then had to go for a relative's wedding (i believe the groom's my grandmother's brother's son, which makes him my uncle.) at Holiday Inn Atrium, a five minute walk away from my house. Walked home in my heels. haha.

gowri's cupcake order.


christmas deco!


my family, and my brother's girlfriend, minus my 2nd brother.

7th Dec,Monday - one week later, Grad night!
Morning was a URA talk I signed up for with Trudy, about the URA scholarship and tea session. Delivered cupcakes to gowri before I headed to URA centre early and met up with trudy, matt and edwin. A few more other njcians were there too, like kok wah, kung yin and shirley. Met Jia xi, a henry park gymmer who went to HCI at the talk too! It was pretty interesting, but I my mind was drifting away when it got to touring the exhibits of different places in singapore. It ended an hour later than specified, but the food was good though. Chocolate eclairs and cheesecake <3.

Rushed home right two minutes before anne came over - for Prom prep! slacked around a little, made my clutch, before I cooked lunch again, and teresa arrived. It took us about an hour and a half to prepare, before leaving to go early to the hotel room which jilly booked by cab. Grr...cab fares are seriously expensive nowadays, 13 bucks to get to raffles city from my house, which is only about 10mins away. But include heavy traffic and ERP surcharge..wallet busters the meters are. Due to the rush, me and teresa forgot jewelry, but didn't bother to go back and get them, so we went earring-less. I have to apologise to teresa for not being able to do her hair as she wanted it to, as a bun, but due to my inexperience, it fell out before prom even started ): sorry!


purse: made from "Fruity Pebbles"

Grad night..was much better than I anticipated. I had fun, watching the performances, going around taking pictures, creating memories that will hopefully, last me forever. The food wasn't too bad, but the mango sago was totally disappointing (being a dessert critic here). The MC was great, and that's what makes a great show. I even got to do the Limbo as one of the table games! Super Seniors (parody of the K band Super Juniors Sorry Sorry MV), OST (Oh Xuemin, Sheena, Trudy's band), 06IP dancers were a few of the performances that I really enjoyed. Of course, there was the Best Dressed,  and Prom King/Queen, which i felt was totally bogus, since I felt that it was more like a 'sabo' game by friends, and didn't truly reflect the titles. But it did feel good when our efforts didn't go to waste, when NORMAN LEE won MR CONGENIALITY XD "What would you want to change the most?" Reply: "My voice." haha! totally out of context.


Anne! sleepover buddy.


teresa: the camwhore who sleptover.


Mr Congeniality!



06IP01 - graduated!

Post-prom was supposedly at Helipad, on the roof of Central, but I trooped alone to Supperclub to pay a visit to Nanthini, Christie and Jo(SA hockers, who had prom on the same night) with the intention of joining my schoolmates at Helipad later. BUT, just before I left the place, Noo and Chench called me and said that they were coming over in a cab. UH? With Mohammad and Reuben too. So, apparently Helipad was boring enough they decided to join me. Mohammad had contacts that got us in (don't ask how) with the soccer guys, without having to buy the SA post-prom tickets. haha. It was pretty mild at the start when we got in, Loud Music, Not Too Crowded...and then the Dancing Started. Noo wanted to dance so much she dragged us in, and I think I lasted five minutes(pathetic ain't it), before I went out to sit. Mostly beacuse having the Smoke machine right behind me, I couldn't breathe. So my first time at a club, was spent mostly sitting around, waiting for others, observing the scene. The dancefloor got really intense as the crowd grew, and I started seeing a lot more NJ people who migrated over from Helipad. So. It was that boring eh? SA post-prom? became half NJ-post prom. I even got a few pictures taken in the SA post-prom album on facebook. haha. I left after two hours, alone, again (2am), and walked back to the room as technically, I wasn't much into the clubbing scene. No point staying. I saw girls getting so drunk they can't walk, girls vomitting, girls getting rubbed up against guys, and I got worried for a particular friend too. Conclusion is, I don't think i'll be stepping in to a club for recreational purposes anytime soon, it's just not my atmosphere to be in.

Supperclub atmosphere.dancefloor.

8-10th Dec, Tues- Today - Post-prom syndrome.
Teresa and Anne slept over at my house after prom, we reached home about 3am? and just went to sleep after a bath. it's pretty exhausting after a whole night out socialising. Morning came, and teresa woke me up to announce she was going home. Reason: for lunch. haha. anne stayed longer, so I baked her brownies as a farewell present, since I couldn't see her off at the airport the next day (yesterday = 9th). Used the time to experiment with peppermint, in brownies, but I still don't think the flavour's strong enough yet.


Yesterday I had a STB scholarship interview, hence couldn't see anne off. I think it went rather badly, with my brain not functioning well. I was stammering and blundering my way through, that the interviewer even commented "I can see you're smoking your way through this one, and the last one too. haha." ugh. I'm really bad at interviews. Really. I can't seem to think on my feet(or chair), make appropriate, coherent responses that answer the question.Hence the blundering. GRR again. Went home feeling deflated, so I slept, then baked the afternoon away, making teresa's sister's order of the same cupcakes, gingerbread men dough, and cookies. Seems like my mood affects my baking too :/ today was not much different, but lesser. SLACKED. that about describes my day. Facebooked (I seem to be on it 20 hours a day now), and well, typed out this post which took a few hours -_-

So much for making my Post-A-Levels plans, most of which I was itching to start on, but haven't. Why do they always not go according to plan?
I should sign up for driving test. Soon.

oh yes, i wanted to mention two dreams i had, but i really shouldn't elongate this post further. It was about visiting the gym at hpps on a sat morning for training, and buying sugar for my baking.haha.

The future awaits.