Loves geog. Loves the Geog class. Loves Tea Party and loves taboo.
Had such a great time tonight, with tons of laughter that I couldn't have had for weeks. MISS YOU GUYS TOO MUCH, and it's making me miss NJ!

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.

06IP01 class outing @ ECP -28/11/09

before it rained....

heading towards the city!

pouty ariel o'.'o

it seems never ending...

our secret garden.

the gang.

ariel + prata with sausage and mushroom

this was what i thought just now, when i was wet, cold and tired:
"I shouldn't have tries so hard. I wanted to leave my classmates with good memories after these four years together, but inevitably, it never happens how you want it to happen"
on today's 06ip01 class outing at ECP. we met, we cycled, didn't manage to get to marina barrage, it rained, we returned the bikes, we left for town. we were there for only 3 hours.

Ariel, Anne and I went shopping at Raffles City instead to find prom shoes since we didn't want to play LAN. Anne found shoes. I didn't. I sad. Ariel bought a scarf. Ariel is my shopping advisor/ fashion police. We were walking around a shopping mall in beachwear (: We had a great dinner [i had Morning Post Blueberry cereal and half a prata], and we left. good food, good company, we enjoyed ourselves.

but i'm fine now. i know i should have expected it. I just didn't want to believe.

what drama.finally something about NJC. not exactly positive, but well as usual, things are seen from a different perspective and blown out of context.

well, this was my view:

" I don't think there's any mean to insult ACS(I) here. Students go to school to learn, and they are: from history. Looking at the context of the activity 'how dictorial regimes should work', isn't the scene which the students are depicting reality? Dictatorial leaders would have their opposing previous rulers killed, and make the opposition suffer. We all know that has happened in the past around the world, and the students are just applying it to classroom learning in a different context, where instead of countries, it is between schools. The use of ACS(I) as the example in their activity was probably just the first school name that popped into their minds, it could have happened to any other school other than ACS(I), with the same scenarios and issues arising anyway. Let's just say that the teacher who posted the photos didn't think of the negative reactions from the public who might look at the pictures and contents from a different perspective."

On to today, finally some mother-daughter bonding in the form of jogging/walking. My mum originally wanted me to run with her at 7am, but i kinda was still asleep, so it shifted to an evening run. We managed to jog all the way to her office area past boat quay, and then stopped at Cavenaugh bridge due to the F1 road blockage (about 2.5k to there).

This wasn't the closest I got to the F1 race though, it was when we walked behind the Asian Civilisations museum, and we walked right beside the (barricaded) road where the cars were driving on. Of course we couldn't see a thing, but the noise was just DEAFENING when it went past. I liked it so much better on TV. But there was that adrenaline rush when you see (or rather hear) something so close to you go so fast. We moved on, made a U-turn towards home. But wanting to buy bread, we ended up grocery shopping at Meidi-ya supermart at Liang Court (after getting a glimpse of Tampopo Deli...surprisingly i wasn't THAT tempted by cake). I spotted an NJ couple buying gelato, but i don't think it'll be nice of me to mention who they were. I've just been seeing them around together a lot lately. And then my mom craved SUBWAY. haha..didn't expect her to, since she already cooked dinner before we left, and so we shared a 6-inch. and then we continued walking home. So, this run-cum-walk with my lasted two and a half hours. Thankfully still shorter than the last time we tried to run.

Next time, I should try to stick to the schedule more...

Oh yes, yesterday was a post-adeline's-birthday celebration! At Settlers' Cafe @ SMU. it was such a laughter-inducing outing (Liu!! how could you miss it!) with Monopoly, Taboo & Ugly Dolls. Four hours just flew by like that. With the right company, a previously thought boring board game can turn very exciting!

More Monopoly?

i had a glimpse of the new perspective on 'cheap' and 'expensive' today.

I was so tired both mentally and physically just an hour ago, but now, i'm feeling pretty awake.
I wonder why, all I've done in the past hour was basically sign in to MSN, and talk to various people (for once in like, two months probably?)
But I guess it's good to catch up with people now and then, which i really hope to re-establish some of my distant friendships made over the past years. It's so interesting to see how people change, and how people's views about you change.

Today was one exciting day, although there is a little apprehension that I'm behaving as if exams are just over like in my secondary/IP school days. So, after I handed in that once-again-incomplete-script and was released from the gym, I went up to the canteen to uh, finish my breakfast cum lunch. Ended up hanging around with Chenchel and Nush for awhile, before I decided then that I really didn't want to start studying Biology Applications syllabus yet, hence with Chenchel made the decision to crash our beloved Xiang Yin's house.

We stayed for about 2 hours, using the time to spontaneously bake Chocolate Molten cake, recipe gotten from joyofbaking.com through XY's iphone. It came out rather yummy despite the a little overcooked-ness, as well as the wide range of chocolate we used inside. There was Belgium Dark and Milk Chocolate, Toll's baking chocolate bars, and uh, some other milk chocolate XY ate before. Haha. But still...addictive (:

We left to watch a movie at orchard after that, meeting with the weirdest combination of people you can find in NJ going to watch a movie together. REALLY. There were like, 4 different groups of people together, let's see if you can seperate them. (some do overlap.) Samantha Mok, Avril, Xiang Yin, ChenChel, Norman, Li Qiang, Ting Zhi and I. It was my first trip inside Ion Orchard today(while waiting for physics people to be done), and the place just seems huge with me only visiting the four basements! The number and variety of shops available is just outstanding. Some, you don't even know existed, branded goods shops, Sephora.....I just feel like going another time when it's not so crowded.

The movie: The Ugly truth. Which I think the newspapers are ugly for only giving it a one-star rating. It's worth at least 3 stars! There was tons of laughing, sadness and happy endings. Leads are hot and cute, although there was quite a bit of swearing. Jokes are mostly sexual inundations, and Gerard Butler is just growing on me now...I felt that the movie was really good and worth watching, for the points of view of men and women relationships. I think I'm still suffering from the dreamy feelings I get after watching movies. Oh, and if it's a plus, i think there was a rumour that one of us cried during the movie (the breakup was pretty saddening..) Did i mention that we had front-row seats as well?

In the end, all's well ends well, but reached home without dinner ):

it's late afternoon, and i'm sleepy.
my tummy's still full from the 2 hour-plus lunch this afternoon at The Line. Shangri-la hotel. Yes, an extravagance, but it was meant as a birthday lunch for my brother's 21st birthday, hence the all out nature of throwing money to the wind, or rather to the hotel's cash register. since it was one expensive buffet, my whole family plus my brother's 5 friends ate till or tummies were at the point of bursting (at least mine felt like it was. that's why i said the last time buffets are so not healthy. The food was good though, as expected from shangri-la.picture post again, since im too sleepy and uncomfortable using my brother's computer. oh and
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE & SHAUN CHUA!

The Line @ Shangri-la Hotel
sadly i didn't take a lot of pictures either..so this'll have to do.

my third serving of food. i was starving, so kinda forgot to take the camera out till then. There was A LOT of variety. Dim sum, prime rib, satay, lamb chop, salmon coli-something (it's like a long salmon puff), mushroom quiche, bread with garden vegetable soup (it was just green pea soup)....those were what i ate. there's a lot more fresh seafood, sashimi, local favourites etc. but the quality was just so good..
left to right: Rose mouse with blood orange jelly, Gula Melaka Sago and Coconut Panna Cotta. My favourite is still the rose mousse.
Clockwise starting from centre: Tiramisu, Apple Filo, Cream Puff, Macaron, Lamington in Rasberry Confit.
Chocolate Cremeux: my older brother's favourite. basically dark chcolate cream with more chocolate in the middle.
L to R: Strawberry Shortcake, Morello Cheesecake, Pineapple and Mango Mousse.
Gulab Jamu: an Indian dessert, supposedly made of condensed milk, flour , soaked in suger syrup. This one had some coconut in it, which made it have this veggie-like texture. made my mom exclaim: 'it's like i'm eating paper.'

L to R: Carrot cake with cream cheese, Macha (green tea and red bean paste)
Creme Brulee. This was NICE.
Brother's Chocolate Truffle Birthday cake. more rich chocolate.
The dessert disply. this is only one third of it, the 'cakes' section. there's the local desserts, the ice cream counter, the waffle/crepe counter with the ice kachang and chendol, and the ethnic desserts....
did i mention i love the range of desserts although those were the ultimate that killed my stomach?

i want!

zara wedges that were on sale...spotted at zara.

it's just been so busy...and now i'm up to my neck drowning in just homework.

well, photo post again. no time to elaborate (although i should be practicing elaboration for ALL my essays no matter what subject it is. meaning that my weakness in scoring level 1 or level 2 marks is due to lack of details and rigour in my essays, and probably lack of evaluation as well.)

Chocolate Amer by Bakerzin. chocolate mousse and cake. alright, nothing special.

Outing on Off-in-Lieu. Tuesday 21st July 2009. Supposedly study session at National Library, then Suntec-Marina Square window shopping, then Millenia Walk's Bakerzin.

Spaghetti Bolognese @ Swensons'

Ariel + some burger @ Swensons'

sheena, anne @ Swensons'

i + ariel @ Swensons'

thin people + burgers @ Swensons' (the size of the burger is improportionate to the person)

anne @ Mango.

anna overtowering pam in heels. @ zara

pam liking wedges (: @ zara

mango mousse @ bakerzin (ariel.yum...)

Newyork cheese @ bakerzin (sheena)

Tiramisu @ bakerzin (anne)

ariel promoting cake.

ariel eating cake.

ariel liking cake.

my free Warm Chocolate cake. @ bakerzin

fin. @ esplanade.

Cafe call with Christine - Wednesday, 22nd July 2009 @ Caramel & Hairloom (Shaw tower)

Creme Brulee.

Bread and Butter Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream. YUM.

love the wall. so reminds me of the ikea cloth i bought (:

shoppe + salon.

love the interior (:

table.

Pretty sky - 24th July 2009 @ Kitchen Window

sadly my phone camera can't capture the real vivid colour. injustice to nature!

tweaked the contrast a little...closer to nature.

this is just a pretty exaggeration. blood orange sky (:

Grades update.

GP- D

Math- U

Biology- U

Economics- E (after moderation)

Geography- D

looks like my marks have yet to pass the halfway mark...