Pre-Christmas.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I decided to update one last time before the Day. Well, after Bintan trip, nothing much happened except catching up with more friends and family time. Dine at Kushinbo with Jonathan and Jason and the spread was good. Well worth the money given the fact that we spent 4 hours in there!




















The dessert platter as designed by Jon..

Had an awesome dinner on Wed and too bad no pictures were taken. Beautiful place and shall say the whole atmosphere is unforgettable!

Thurs night was a wonderful dinner at Melben Seafood in Ang Mo Kio. The bill came to a whopping $400++! We had 4 extra huge crabs cooked in different styles~. 1 Chili crabs, 2 Butter crab, 1 crab beehoon! After dining there for more than 2 years, I just realised that the boss is actually a family friend! Haha! Many thanks to Uncle Alvin for the treat as we had a very full dinner!















Cousin Danny and I holding on to Butter Crab~!















Family photo!

Drinks with Saulin at Fullerton was great! Although she was late but I guess her company made up for it! Am really to know someone like her. Always willing to lend a listening ear and a great friend indeed!

May Ee came back early..ONCE AGAIN!! That girl.. always springing suprises on us like that. Although its great to have her back, we had to re-shuffle some plans instead. Still, I love you sister!















Drinks at Fullerton..

Christmas party with some salsa friends on Sat night and it was good. It was well organised and due to the suprise my sister sprung on my family, I was unable to help out. Thankfully, everything worked out well. I had to leave the party early to attend to something and its still a great night after-all!~















Grp pic with feast right in front!

Sunday was the day of eating glutinous rice balls (Tang Yuan). I did not make it this time. Left it all to May Ee as she enjoyed doing it. Everything was good and supper with best friends after that. Melvin and NBX came to pick me up and we spent some time talking and time really flies~. Thanks guys!! Am really glad to have friends like you all!

Dinner with Katherine on Monday opened my eyes to alot of stuff and I really enjoyed the coffee and dinner session with her. I am blessed to know a friend like her and am suprised that although there is a wide generation gap, we managed to talk for hours! She is looking good and am very happy for her!

Went on for coffee with Valris as she had night shift and picked Danny from Parklane before coming home. He is sleeping over for 2 nights! A typical cousin pajamas party! Haha.

Alright, I will stop here as I have yet to upload the pictures from today. WIll hope to write more happy stuff after tomorrow!

Bintan Trip, 12-14 Dec 08

Been to Bintan and back. It was a fruitful trip. Kudos to Shirine for making all possible. Although she might deny it, its still a good holiday.

We started off on Fri morning. Breakfast at Bedok hawker centre before grocery shopping. Its been a long time since I had such yummy breakkie!















Danny and I at the food centre..

The ferry ride was rough. Alot of people had to use the additional bags provided to empty their stomachs. We arrived at the check-in counter early and waited for Danny to check in. So we decided to cam-whore quite abit. Hehehe.















I kinda like this picture...

We checked into our villa and relaxed soon after. Nothing much happened except getting ready for dinner and all the cooking. Dinner spread was good and to top it off, the tang-yuan was a big success!!















First dinner... with good wine..




















Dark Chocolate Tang-Yuan! Big Success!~

The night ended with dai-di in the girls' room. Well, they took the largest room and since all 4 are sharing one room, we cannot complain.

Saturday was another cooking day. Breakfast was prepared by yours truly and we soon proceeded to the pool and beach for the day's activities.















Cam-whoring at villa while waiting for buggy to pick us up..















At the pool waiting for the buggy to return..

Dinner was fantastic. Ribs, Caesar Salad, Crab Bisque, Pasta Bolognaise, Cheesecake and Amurula Shake. Very rich and fattening!!!















Dinner spread...

Sunday, time to leave. We took a couple shots before we boarded the bus to take us back to the lobby. Since our ferry is only 5 hours later, we decided to sit in a cafe and had food and drinks while we play more card games. Hehe.















Lunch-cum-drinks @ The Terrace

Overall, a relaxing and good trip. No doubt some things have changed but most important of all, everyone had fun. Its more of a self-awareness trip for myself. I guess we can never make everyone happy. The best a person can do is to compromise and settle the issues amicably. Its always give-and-take.

One should never forget the purpose of a holiday or get-away is to have fun and not be bogged down with minute issues. Remember the holiday for the joyful moments but not by the unhappy stuff. I know I had fun. I choose to remember the smiles.

Home...

I have been for 12 days already. All had been really good so far. As far as I am concern, I have been spending time with my family, especially Mummy dearest. Then this coming Wed, I will be spending the whole day with her. Gym, Swim, Shopping and Eating. Its unbelievable that I actually managed to spend so much time with my family and not so much time outside.

I was home or with family for the first few days. The only person I met was Mel who came up to my place on Friday night. I only went out with friends on Saturday. All thanks to Saulin who arranged. Dinner was at Marche followed by dancing the night away.















Group Pic..

Lucky guy with good friends.

And yes... Saulin 姐。。。 我回来。。。 :) We were caught by surprise after Dinner. We were just taking our own sweet time to walk out of Marche when we were told that there will be fireworks display soon. It was to commemorate Vivocity's 2 years anniversary. Got to admit, fireworks there and then brought back unhappy memories. Much thanks to caring friends, I am over it now.






























Nice right?..

Sunday was with grandma and Auntie Lily's family. All came along for shopping as grandma wanted to buy me a watch to replace one that I lost. Hehe. Spent the whole day with her and it was good. Grandma can really talk and I don't recall her ever stopping from 12noon to 11pm. Haha.















Grandma and Auntie's family..

So far, had dinner at Crystal Jade, Dempsey's House, Ding Tai Fung,... etc. All was good. Good to know that I was welcome home after so long with so many changes in Singapore. At least one thing is constant, good friends. Am lucky to have friends like that.

Nothing much after that as I was with Mummy most of the time. I went to have dinner with friends, supper with best friends and I caught Snow White and 7 Dwarfs. Boy, it is a fantastic production!!
















I even took some pictures with the cast!! Purposely be the last one to queue for autograph (cause I bought the CD) to chat with them. Sebastian can really be a drag queen! Haha... Plans for the next few days... catching up with childhood friend, cooking a feast at home for family, Mummy's day and Bintan trip. Hehe. By the way, not much dancing so far. But those 2 days I went, it had been fantastic!@ As usual, got my dance of the night. And Damn~!.. its memorable~! *wink*

Coming home is a bitter-sweet feeling...

Yes. I am all packed. Or mostly packed. I am coming back tomorrow. Somehow, this time it sure feels different. Before I go on, let me just say I finished my exams. Grades I hope for are as follow:

Maths and Statistics- High Distinction
Physiology of Exercise- Distinction
Biomechanics- Distinction
Biochemistry of Exercise- Credit

Really hope I get these grades as it will pull up my GPA and compensate for a disastrous first semester earlier this year.

I had been really busy after exams. The day immediately after exams on Thurs, I went up Brisbane. With both Amanda and Beatrice in the car, we went up to shop and eat. Main aim was to sing KTV in Sunnybank. I called Bernie along and we all had a good time. All was good and we had yumcha after that. I only managed to reach home at around 6am on Friday morning. We caught sun-rise by the beach and boy was it beautiful.

I had a couple hours sleep before waking up to go Movieworld. Spent a whole day there with all the rides and boy was it wonderful~. Tried to do some more shopping before joining Shelle and her friends for a beer at the tavern. The evening was spent in Currumbin at Kate's place where Amanda got drunk. The company was great and we definitely had too much to drink!! (once again!)

Woke up on sat on the couch at Kate's and had to rush home to freshen up for lunch with both Sisters. They wanted to bring me to George's Paragon and it was good. The food was fantastic! To my surprise, they actually passed me my first Christmas gift this year!! When I opened it, i was touched.















Yes... its D & G... expensive...















Cologne.. after-shave balm.. shower gel...

Gosh, I felt so bad for making them spend so much. They bought me lunch and I got them coffee instead. It was definitely an enjoyable lunch. Got to really thank them for taking such good care of me here. I promise I will do the same when I see them in Singapore in Dec!

That same evening, I met up with Amy, Amanda and Beatrice for dinner. It was sukiyaki and we ate too much. Hehe. Didn't do much except to go back to their place for DVD.

Sunday had a brunch appointment with Helen and we went chocolate shopping! $50+ worth of chocolate! Mostly given out as gifts as I was told that SG don't sell these... Here it is...















Half of the chocolate I bought..















Helen and I in a pile of choclate.... a girl's fantasy...

It was definitely wonderful as didn't know she is such a chocolate fan... that she collected all the wrappers. Haha. I finally managed to meet up with Eziq soon after. He had changed his ride and boy... I wished I had the money to do the same. We went off to somewhere far for coffee in his new toy and it had been really nice catching up with him.





















Eziq's new ride... BMW Z4

Today, had been home after going to the beach once again to chill. Had a good talk with my buddy before dropping my car at Auntie Shirley. She sent me home to pack soon after. Michelle rang me up around dinner time and asked that I go out for dinner. Having no plans, I agreed. Little did I know that she had actually called Trish, Erin, Jessica and Kyla along! It was a great dinner having good friends around and they even sent me home.

I am gonna miss them! Coming home in 16 hours. Lets just hope my Qantas jet land safely amid all the scares.

Au Revoir Australia...

Signs.

Nothing much had happened in particular except that I was sick last week. Very sick. Took quite abit of medicine and still unwell. However, I still attended a birthday party cum Halloween at Michelle's. It was good but pictures would not be posted as there's some agreement between us. Well, I left the party early as I was pale and everyone was quite concerned about my health by then.

I made several decisions this few weeks and firmly believed that those are the right ones to take. In whichever case, its decided. Some, I believe had certain signs to guide me along and some are plainly after some self reflection. Not going to say much here as alot of people reads this.

Moving on to happy stuff... Cindy and Amelia brought me out for dinner 2 weeks ago! It was at this expensive Japanese restaurant and good food was to be expected. In short, we were not dissapointed! Put it simply, food was fresh, company was great and we had so much to eat that we couldn't dance much at the latin party after!!















This is just the appetiser... did not take pictures of the main nor dessert as was too hungry!

Had coffee recently with some friends at Broady and this funny sugn caught my eye...
















I want a free puppy!! hahaha... but can also imagine children with expresso at night.. noisy and would not be able to sleep!!

I was tidying up my room when I suddenly stood up and saw this sign on my wall. It was a gift from my mum before she left Australia last Feb.















Mum's words... true? And they say mum knows best...

Thinking about it now, how true it might be? What do you all think?

You...
Thanks for the t-shirt! Looking forward to seeing you after almost 2 years! I will feed you more than just prata!! Perhaps we can come up with something and even more outings!!

You...
Am happy that you finally found someone! Oh boy! You really took your own sweet time to pick and choose yea? Hehe. Why no more updates now? Ever since got girlfriend, no time to write?! Now I am stuck with this song on my blog, you better write something.. Not that I am complaining as it is a nice song.

You...
I know you have been very busy with new product launching in a couple weeks time. Do take care of yourself and I would be back then we can go out and have fun once again! So much to catch up on and really love the cards! *wink*

Both of You...
Thank for the concern lately! I am sorry that I made you worry so much that you couldn't sleep. Don't worry about me. I will be fine. Thank you for the talk as it just helped in one of the major decisions. I will catch up with both of you after the exams! By then, all would be better I hope.

You...
Its been half a year since we last seen each other! How have you been? I seriously think we have to talk when I get back. Cause as of now, its neither here nor there.

You...
I cannot believe that you actually told your friends. It was a shock when I was asked about it. Perhaps I have not known you long enough to fully understand you.

You...
I cannot believe how long it takes for both of us to click! Pretty fast I will say. Do take care and be fore-warned of what I told you that early morning. Things might seem difficult in future but have faith in it. You will be fine. You have my number if you ever need to call.

You...
Its been great knowing you. Studying together in the lab for this whole week seemed to be a great idea. I had known more now and would thread carefully of what and how I do things now. Regarding the conversation last night, lets keep it strictly between just you and I, as agreed.

Having taught so many students this semester, I have received comments on my teaching from their evaluations of me. So far, all liked my teaching with some even comparing me to other tutors/demonstrators they had. Its really heart warming when one of them wrote this in the evaluation..

"Before these tutes I did not understand one single thing about organic chemistry, so Ben patiently went through all the lecture notes and workshop questions with me. Even if i didn't fully understand everything in the tutes, when i got home and went throught my notes again (with ben's added tips) i was able to grasp the concepts and i definately now have confidence that i can pass the end sem exams. thanks Ben :) "

Teaching had been great for me this semester and now I know I can teach not only Maths, but Biophysics and Biochemistry as well! Haha. With exams so near, I had to turn down a couple request to do additional tutoring as I need time to do my own studying as well. I think this post is longer than what I expected it to be initially. Well, back to my studies now and maybe update again.

Camping in Murwillumbar!!

Yup! I went camping with Jian in New South Wales last weekend! We were both invited by Jess and Kyla. Its seriously an eye-opener as its not your ordinary farm-stay whereby there were animals and such. Its a real farm! Jess and Kyla's dad were sugar-cane farmers and own huge plots of land. So with huge land comes huge machines...




















Big machine I tell you...

Yea. Big machine in a BIG shed. Not only that, we had too much to drink. Jian calculated that we had an average of 15 bottles of beer each and to add on, 4 equivalent of strong Bundy-coke. We were all high and tipsy at the very least! It was a beautiful night with all stars and the Morrin family were definitely wonderful hosts! We had barbie for dinner and as it was really cold at night, we had a huge bon-fire going. Both Jian and I slept in the tents outside the house to get the real feeling of 'camping' and it was really an experience! Something I would really love to try again some time soon!















One of the many shots taken...

After the night of heavy drinking, we had a tour around Neville's farm and even visited his boat in the morning! The farm is definitely a good place to unwind and relax. Its really something you will never expect. Waking up to the chirping of birds and all that...















The farm..















Riding on the back of the truck... touring the farm.. lol..

Now with all fun seems to be ending one way or another, there's Michelle's birthday cum Halloween party tomorrow, followed by the SSA End of Sem dinner on Sat. Haha. Its about time we hand over to the new committee! Hehehe. Looking forward to dressing up for the Halloween party as my costume is abit... unorthodox! Haha..

Present!!

I bought this online...





















Made the purchase a couple days ago and its now on its way to my home. That little girl's feet get cold during winter and so I had decided to buy this to keep her warm in Canada. Might be expensive, a whopping AUD$186 but I think its all worth it as long as she likes it.

On the other hand, she had decided to get me American Eagle apparels. Hehehe.

While I try to study for my finals, I have to give myself some time to go shopping for souvenirs. As usual, I always get gifts for my parents and loved ones. This time, I have a rough idea of what to get and so it shouldn't be that tough. Hehe.

Mel, i am really looking forward to coming back for those supper!! haha. Can't wait!! We got so much to catch up on!!