Great great lunch today cause I met up with Ek! She traveled all the way from Pasir Ris to my office area just to meet me for lunch! How touching! Applause. The most surprising thing was, she wasn't late! Considering that it was such a long journey hahaha.
We ate at Cedele!!! Took a picture of Cedele a long time ago but this is the first time I ate cakes from there. These are all the cakes available today and the moment we spotted red velvet cake, we were like OH they have red velvet cakes?!?! The red velvet CUPcakes were delicious and very famous in Washington DC, George's Town. So we thought this cake would be delicious too.
Ta da! The looking delicious red velvet cake! Mmmm... Can't wait to taste it.
But before every food tasting, photos first!
Attempted self-shot but failed.
Finally, we managed to get a waitress to take a photo for us, together with the cute background.
Smart Ek decided to tilt the plate if not it wouldn't be seen.
And so, we tuck in! The cake is indeed as delicious as it looks. The cream cheese layer around the cake goes perfect with its spongy inside. The cake spongy is not those typical type you taste in "normal" cakes. The sponge bits are bigger, and more moist, resembling that of the carrot cake.
NOT THIS.
Picture taken from http://www.soshiok.com/article/10385
BUT this...
Picture taken from http://1.bp.blogspot.com
Delicious! And there is a delicate rose decoration sitting on top of the cake. Not to be eaten though.
Went to VJC Band Concert yesterday to support my very talented cousin! She is the concert mistress of her band and will be conducting Mononoke Hime Medley during the concert at Esplanade.
Before I come to how I was mesmerized by her graceful conducting hand movements, let me give a brief review on the concert.
VJC Band is real solid. Love the songs chosen and the way they played them. The music was tight. Good control of the instruments and rounded tones. The best part about band playings is that grandeur feeling. You just feel so warm listening to the music.
Though the songs were generally long, like real long, it was captivating. The problem with long songs is that you tend to drift away, lose your attention and forget about listening to the music. But no, this did not happen yesterday. I like how the band was able to capture little bits of expressions through their playing. Intense, Grand, soft, tip-toed, suspense, terror, sweet, swing and all.
The opening of the concert was most apt with this overture. Classic will be how I describe it.
1. Festive Overture
Dmitri Shostakovich/ arr. Donald Hunsberger
Presentation of the 2nd song was very interesting. SUDDENLY, the lights in the concert hall dimmed gradually beyond the usual brightness. (Suddenly vs gradually?? isn't that an irony) haha ok not SUDDENLY as in literally *SNAP* all dark. But what I meant was, we didn't expect this to happen. It was expected that the lights will dim but it dimmed so much that it was almost pitch black in the concert hall. You barely could see your fingers. So then, is there a electricity breakdown?
Far up on the 3rd level of the concert hall, a white figure shone upon by spotlight appeared. It was ghostly. BUT, she's not a ghost. She is an angel. She started this piece by singing her solo part. She was not using any mike, but her voice echoed well in the concert hall. The power of the esplanade concert architecture that makes sound resonate. The melody she sang was a sweet one. Reminded me of the singing Harry Potter heard underwater in the Triwizard Tournament. Following her solo singing, the band came in. This time, the music was suspenseful with detached silences embedded in them.
2. Angels in the Architecture
Frank Ticheli
3. Noah's Ark
Bert Appermont
The following song is a romantic one. My cousin conducted it beautifully. I remember how she used to be clueless about conducting and was so afraid, but now, she has done it. :) Well done! Her movements were so graceful. Her hands appeared to be dancing in the air, dancing to the beat. We all enjoyed her song very much. Thank God for bringing her through the entire process.
4. Mononoke Hime Medley
Joe Hisaishi/ arr. Takashi Hoshide
INTERMISSION
After the intermission, it was the Alumni performing. The only thing I shall mention here is that I spotted a familiar face. That of a familiar person. That of a familiar drummer. He was my batch in VJC and was a guest performer for my Harmonica Concert. He was the Best Drummer I have ever met. His beat is very steady and even. Most amazingly, he can just impromptu the drum's accompaniment! I think drums are very important. For the appropriate songs, they make them come alive.
5. By the River's Bend
VJCSB Alumni
6. 童话
VJCSB Alumni
7. Blue Sky & Sunshine
VJCSB Alumni
8. William Tell Overture
VJCSB Brass Ensemble
Following the immense popularity of the Taiwan movie "the apple of my eye", introduction to this song is unnecessary. As implied, those years makes one reminiscent about the past. The past...to me, I would always fondly remember my times in VJC. I spent 4 years there and I would say, it's the best time of my schooling days. Though there were lots of tutorials to do, lots of exams, and the big A Levels monster, I felt that times then were so innocent and carefree. I was happy. Thank God I still am :).
9. 那些年
VJCSB Brass Ensemble
10. I Miss You
Dr. Zechariah Goh Toh Chai
11. La Passio De Crist MVT I
Ferrer Ferran
12. Archangel Raphael who leave a house of Tobias
Masanori Taruya
Last but not the least, the band presented us with Japanese Graffiti XIV. When the song name was announced, a big crowd in the hall cheered. It must be some popular or famous song, I thought. The name appeared unfamiliar to me at first but after the song started, I realized it's... ARASHI! Arashi is a Japanese Band that my other cousin loves. They have been around for more than 10 years. She introduced it to me years ago and I grew to like Nino! He's the guy 2nd from the left in the photo below. My cousin's favourite is Ohno, who is the leader of the band, the one in the middle. Ohno and Nino are very good friends!
13. Japanese Graffiti XIV
Miura Hideaki
Arashi
Before I end my post, here's the last song they played. I managed to find the song played by another orchestra on YouTube. Enjoy!
Today is such a happy day! I managed to visit ART FRIEND after work. I went to the Buona Vista one which was opened quite recently. Or at least, more recent that the rest. haha. It is a nice, cosy place next to the MRT station and there is an escalator leading up to the store. No down escalator though. So you have to carry all your heavy "loot" down after a fulfilling shopping time.
I was so so excited!!! My best friend, here I come!
My best friend giving me the warmest welcome!
When I get excited, I tend to overlook the quantity of items I am buying and just pick them into my little shopping basket. Exactly like how I order my Yong Tau Foo. Recalls...
Friend A: Jinci, 6 pieces of YTF is min number. You got count a not?
Me: Huh? Don't need to count la. Count already then not happy liao. Just take whatever I like. Later too conscious about budget then not 幸福 already.
(Me busy picking all my favourite pieces while replying my friend.)
Time to pay for my YTF...
Me: Auntie, 多少？
Auntie: 小妹来，六块二。
Me: orh, ok.
(My friends around me... O_O)
And that's how I made my name for being the YTF Queen. Anyway, back to my best friend :D. There are so many materials over in Art Friend but I'm quite familiar with most of the materials there already. I've been to the outlet at Bras Basah and Orchard. The layout is pretty much the same. Then I went happily picking my art materials.
A special mention goes to a paint brush I bought. The prices of the paint brushes are not that easy to locate. They have special tags and you have to refer to the coding sheet labeled near the brushes. Being the "anything goes" me, I just picked out a nice looking brush and went to the counter. To my HORROR, that brush cost me $7 plus bucks?!?! Of course I didn't buy it in the end. I immediately chiong back to the brush area and picked another more "inferior-looking" one. But that cost $2+ bucks as well.
Thankfully, I am a member of my best friend! Of course, how could I not support my best friend right! If I'm not wrong, members get 10% discount off the retail prices. Now comes the moment of truth.
How much did I spent??
For all the materials you see in the photo below, (plus 2 more secret items which can't be revealed as they are main components in the gifts I'm going to make), it costs me....
$49.90!
What a nice figure! 10 cents less that $50. Makes me feel a tiny bit happier as this odd-number pricing seems cheaper.
I wanted to buy FIMO clay, but apparently Art Friend doesn't sells it. So disappointing! But but but...my best friend knows me well enough. I found Sculpey!!!! It's the same as FIMO, but there's like ~4g more material in the pack and costs less! Only $3 plus dollars compared to $4 plus FIMO. YAY.
So here goes my happy art materials shopping trip after work. Cheers!
Nus results are out today (yesterday actually, cause I took too long to blog!) at 10am for business school. Interestingly, with the advances in technology, there are a couple of ways you could choose to receive the emperor's decree.
Push SMS:
You could register for this service and in the morning... Imagine this. Morning comes around and you open your eyes when you wake up. Instinctively, you reach out for your mobile phone and you see something scary on your phone. Really scary...
CAP Score: ___ / 5.0
Plus all your module grades. Not to worry, you won't see red and get all frightened like what you see in the financial statements.
Now, you have 3 choices.
Number 1: The results are too scary and you decided to plunge back onto your bed and pretend nothing happens. hmm.. Well that will not change anything though. Reality is SET!
Number 2: The results are not too scary and you decide to get out of bed to face reality. Life goes on...
Number 3: Results are Fantastic! you decide to give yourself a day off work and go celebrate! Take an MC and what not. The best birthday gift from the doctor.
Personally, I don't go for this Push SMS service. Ya.. Cause it's just too scary! I don't want it to interrupt into my life! I heard from my friends who subscribed it that it's rather difficult to unsubscribe from it. She tried finding how to but has not found a cure so far. If you subscribe it from year 1 sem 1, that will be at least 6 sems of increased risk for heart attack! Depending if you do your honours, that will be an additional 2 sems. So then, how do I check my results in a safe manner? Option 2.
Myisis online checking system:
Results would be out at 10am. You log on to myisis portal, go to self service on the left, click on view my exams results. Why is this less scary? Cause you go through more steps! And you are in control of the clicking. That way, you can be more mentally prepared.
For me, I prefer to check the results only at night so as not to affect my day. I'll pray to God beforehand and learn to trust in Him. It's all in God's hand. So yup. I've finally checked my results last night. Thank God for all He has given.
Now for the crucial short summary!
Push SMS:
Shock rating: 8/10
It's not getting full marks for that yet. If you dream about your results and jump up from your sleep, then realizing it is true, I'll give it shock rating 10/10.
Myisis online checking system:
Shock rating: 6/10
That's it! Thanks for reading about the most eventual day this semester! Stay tuned!
After church today, I went out with Ronnie, his mom, his aunt and his grandma to NEX Fairprice! Heard from his aunt that the Fairprice there was huge. So we decided to bring his grandma there for an "excursion". She was so happy at Fairprice, wandering around, looking at the fruits and vegetables.
Seeing her smile makes us happy :)
The first thing I noticed at the fruits' section are these apples! They have such vibrant colours and apt names. NZ Beauty Apples.
NZ Beauty Apples. Beautiful colour, isn't it?
Picking the papayas that look like mangoes!
The fruits there look very fresh and there are many fruits in weird shapes. There are FAT mangoes from Thailand, long and green mangoes from somewhere which I forget, and there are small papayas that resembles mangoes.
LOOK AT THIS MELON!
We were happily looking around till we saw THIS! What a BIG FAT watermelon. In comparison to the orange, it looks.....too oversized. Yes. That's the word. After doing some calculations, the weight of the melon is 17 kg! A 17 kg watermelon?! Anyway, that was the only one in that shelve. So I wonder if other people really bought all the other big watermelons or was there only one in the first place. haha
What a big watermelon from Taiwan!
Grandma is so amused by this. I'm sure this melon has garnered a lot of attention from the shoppers.
Grandma smiling so happily again! I'm sure she enjoyed her time shopping!
Grandma admiring the frozen products.
Under the Big Dumpling. Rain falls also not scared.
This Fairprice is really huge. There's many specialty booths around such as Sushi, Korean, Grilled, and even the Jin Zhu Ba Zhang! They even have this big dumpling here as form of advertisement. Some sort of viral marketing!
Our new promoter for today!
Mini chocolate eclair that looks so delicious! Thai pan used to serve these as desserts after meals. They are so small and cute.
Big crabs for sale! Comes in L and XXL sizes. Their pincers look big. I tried to grab some of them using the red thongs provided. Indeed solid.
The crabs are so heavy you need both hands to lift it up!
Happy shopping ended and off we go for lunch! Lunch at Ding Tai Feng was great. We ordered spinach with garlic. The most delicious vegetable I have ever eaten. In fact, I don't mind eating 1 whole plate by myself! haha We also order the traditional favourite: Xiao Long Bao!
Did you know... that their Xiao Long Bao must have at least 18 folds if not you can ask them for a new one! My friend told it to me a while ago. haha. But don't bother counting. I tried counting a few in the past but gave up. They are all more than 18! Kudos to the chefs!
Yummy fried rice and xiao long baos! mmmm... Enjoy lunch!
Yay, I finally couldn't resist the temptation to open up the FIMO red clay. It was soooo fun! The clay was ultra hard so I added some water to it and kept kneading it till it became softer. I think we're supposed to add water if not it's so flaky and hard to mould.
So... what can I make using just the Red FIMO. Of course, I started out by making hearts. Then I made lips then I made cute little red buttons.
For the hearts, I turned it into earrings which I added a few beads on top. Not a fantastic looking pair, but not too bad for my first try I guess. :P
I thought it was pretty easy to mould the clay into shapes. But I was wrong! It was so difficult to get the right shape and mould identical ones to make a pair. Perhaps it's because I didn't purchase the FIMO crafting kit that comes with the knife and all. O well, for a start, Wasn't too bad at all! Fun fun fun!
Final products with other FIMO clays I've made will be updated after I complete them!
Recently bought 3 packs of FIMO soft clay to play with! I have played with it a long time ago but lost touch with it for many years. Suddenly got that excitement to play with it again! For a start, I bought the Mandarin Orange, Cherry Red and Glow in the Dark colours.
So what's so special about thie FIMO clay?
You can knead the FIMO clay into any shape you want, put it in the oven, and it will harden itself like a rock! You can use it to make nice figurines as gifts.
It's time to do some art and craft again. I'll be posting more pictures shortly on what I'll be making. But in the meantime, I better go start on my assignments and work before I procrastinate and it's due time.
When I first stepped into this office for interview, I was like WOW. This is like a dream office! It felt like I was in Europe as I saw a lot of caucasians drinking coffee at the cafe. Totally wowed by the beautiful working environment! Work would be so enjoyable in such an environment. So... Here are the pictures!
Free flow of ice cream! The green Fruitare always get left behind though. haha
Butterscotch, mini!
Secret Area behind the lipton cafe (shown below)
The Lipton cafe sells some pastry, cookies and imptly, B&J ice cream! Love strawberry cheesecake.
Level 6, reception zone
Singapore room.
Infinity pool leading from Level 7. This is part of the Fitness First Gym.
Free Magnum temptation prior to product launch! There's the hazelnut bon bon and Fruit flavours.
Recently downloaded a few art and craft apps that I thought was pretty cool. This app is called Bouquet Maker! and I was using it to create the below pictures while on the bus to work today.
I like the vintage looking effect of the pictures I created. However, this effect is not created using the Bouquet app itself. I transferred it to LINE Camera in order to apply the effect.
Good thing about this app is that the flowers and backgrounds are quite beautiful. However, only about 3 flowers are provided free. The rest you have to pay per flower. Sad. Also, you can't seem to rotate the flower or resize it. So...sometimes the stalks are too short, flowers too big too small etc.
.jpg)
