Grumblings of a Final Year Undergraduate

I am feeling really, really stressed up. At the back of my mind, there are many numerous things I have to settle.

1) FYP Project Report

2) Quantitative Analysis Report

3) Net Shape Manufacturing CA Project

4) Fluids CA

5) Blogshop stuffs

6) Naggings of my parents, especially my mum

7) Something which I mind a lot

8) Job

I wish I could relate how I am feeling right now to a person, any person but I can't. Everyone is too busy to mind their own problems, let alone mine.

I thought of wanting to do something to pamper myself a little but I stopped that thought when I thought of the money I had to spend just for something that can only last for 1 month. It is not a big deal of money but to me it is.

Tell me how long more can I hold on before I suffer a complete breakdown?

Krystal's Birthday Gathering!

The peeps of AJ 30/05 gathered together for a high tea buffet at Kuishinbo (Jurong Point outlet) to celebrate Krystal's birthday. Some of them decided that we shall just make do with treating the birthday girl for the buffet instead of racking our brains for birthday presents. This will follow for all of our birthdays in future, which I thought was a great idea since we are all really busy people. :)

Wei Jing, Wee Jia and Hsien Meng enjoying their food

The food was actually alright only, though I thought the dinner one was much better as there are snow crabs and tempanyaki. The only food I had like there was their Chawanmushi, which was and has always been my all time favorite, and their Chicken Porridge! Mad delicious I couldn't resist but had myself with 3 bowls of the porridge!

It was quite a rush as we only had 1.5 hours to eat, but still we kind of enjoyed it. :)

The bill added up to $21 per pax, which was very affordable!

Krystal, the birthday girl

After which, we had a 30 minutes discussion on where to go next after the high tea. They were deciding between my house or Clarke Quay! In the end, jing had a craving for a drink and so we headed to Clarke Quay.

Min and Jing laughing at something?

On our way down to Clarke Quay :))

We went to Cafe Iguana because min was rattling on about the Nacho chips they serve there. The chips were quite a disappointment though, as compared to last time. Both Wee Jia and I agreed that the chips tasted much better last time.

Wee Jia and DJ. Check out their actions!

We ordered House Pour - Pink Guava Magarita. I am not a fan of Magaritas because I don't quite enjoy the bitter taste of the drink. I guess it came from the Vodka?

Am a sucker for alcohols or wine!

Me!

Min with her favorite 'pose'!

Pink Guava Margaritas!

Boy helped us took a photo. This was one of the better looking ones. Lol!

Me and Min! :))

I forgot what I was doing that time...

We finished our drinks at around 8pm and since the night was still young, and boy and I previously had plans to stay out late on Saturday, we decided to catch a movie - Red Riding Hood!

He told me that it was a horror movie but it turned out not that case. -.-

The movie was great and I think the lead actress was very pretty!

Crazy two-some

Boy had a sweet-tooth and so we bought a popcorn set. Boy and I used to have some conflicts over the flavor of the popcorn because he likes it sweet but I like it salty. We always have to settle for a mix. But until recently, I realised that the sweet ones are really nice and since then, we settled for the sweet one.

Morale of the story - Always try something new so that you know whether you like it or not. :)

Hahahhaaa

Parents went on a cruise again so boy had a stayover at my place. I was too tired so we had a little talk till 3am and then I fell asleep. Woke up at 10am and there he was playing with my iphone until 12am. Totally like a kid! :)

Anyway, Congrats to Min for securing herself a job now! Going into a different line now but I believe you can do it Min! Gonna miss all the stayovers we had and I can almost predict that it will be much much harder to ask you out for retail therapy or food therapy now! Remember what I told you, start looking for a boyfriend now!! :)

Future Plans

Hearing wedding bells soon?

:

:

:

:

:

No.

Okay. Now I officially declare that I will only get married at least 4 years later, and a baby at least 6 years later. That would mean that I am being listed in the high risk pregnant mother's group.

Grrrrrrrrr. Let me just grumble for a while...

But I understand where all this comes from, like what boy has told me about his plans. I respect his plans and I trust that he can do it and provide me with a comfortable life! :)

100% trust him when it comes to planning for future. I have no worries about that.

Go boy!

But I am happy that we can start planning for house next year!

I had a little meet-up session with Fumin on Friday evening after her work and my school. We decided to have Korean BBQ at Tanjong Pagar!

Tucked in a little corner with only a small signage, you might not even have noticed this restaurant - 2d1n Soju Bang. However, what surprised us was the super duper long queue along the stairs that leads up to the restaurant at Level 2. We decided that since we were there, we must try the food no matter how long we are going to wait. Fumin had almost wanted to give up halfway because we waited from 6.50pm to 8.45pm before we finally got ourselves a table!! A 1 hour 45 minutes of wait just to try the Korean BBQ! The food there was really w0rth the wait. I would give it a rating of 9/10 for the food. If only the air-con had been stronger, and that reservations are allowed, I would definitely give it full marks.

The beef was damn damn X 10 nice. Even our dear Fumin can't help but had a few slices of it!

The bill came up to only $22 per pax for the buffet. Worth it! :)

Fumin very satisfied with the food!

Spread of Prawns!

2d1n Soju Bang Korean BBQ!

2 happy friends

After a hearty dinner, we strolled over to NTUC Fairprice to purchase a bottle of red wine because we headed back to my house where Fumin had a stayover. And you guessed it, the red wine is for her. We played a few games of daidee and after like only 1 cup of red wine, she started feeling tipsy and was blabbering nonsense. Few moments later, her eyes were closed and she was breathing heavily away. I then cleared up the mess and had to pull her to the correct sleeping position.

Introducing Ms Zhang with a new look! Styled by Ms Koh!

The back view. Feel like eating Maggie Mee now?

The she complained that the fringe looks weird because it's too straight, so I curled her fringe too. Then it came out like that! Hahhaa!

A very satisfied Fumin.

Last photo of her ma bok.

Really enjoyed all the stayovers we had. A little sad to say but I guess this could be our very last stayovers, since min will be working from 18th March onwards. Sigh :(

Anyway, I had a really great weekend this week :)

Boy sent me down on Saturday to meet Joanne regarding the new designs and after which, we back to his house as his parents were having some BBQ thingy. We then headed down to the water front at Woodlands with his sister and after that, had supper at Chomp Chomp together! Love the food there.

Boy and his sister playing at the play ground.

Went down to The Cathay to catch a movie today. Parking rates there was crazy. Headed down to Geylang where we had our dinner. Had a craving for smelly tofu again and was surprised that boy was willing to try! Really smelled like shit but I like!

Boy boy!

Happy me

My favorite smelly tofu place at Geylang Lorong 41!

This is it!!!! :):) LOVES.

Then we had Teo Chew Porridge. Looked like it's very little but it's actually very filling. Simple meal makes our day :)

Teo Chew Porridge

After which was Marina Barrage, boy's all-

time favorite place. A very romantic place for couples to go dating.

Weeee

I got a little depressed after boy sent me home because that would mean that I can only see him the next weekend. He had been so busy that it was almost impossible to meet him during weekdays. Even a phone chat was that difficult. :(

What to do?

Been really really busy lately. Too stressed up until I broke down in front of boy few days ago at his place. I guess I should have already more or less know what industry I want to be in so hopefully I can land myself in a job soon! Though I haven really been sending in applications yet -.-

After photoshoot last Saturday, we went to the new shopping centre beside Cineleisure (I forgot the name) to have our dinner. The place was called Wild Honey. Boy heard about the great reviews there so we decided to give it a try. Looks atas, and the price was not too pleasing to me. Hahaha I know I am stingy.

Wild Honey only serves breakfast meals so don't expect something like beef platter, fish and chips etc.

The habit of noting down his expenses..

Their menu are written on these chalk boards

Boy's Grilled Chicken Sandwich - $14

My 'I Love New York' Breakfast Set - $24!!!

I think my breakfast set was really great, especially the omelette and the donut-lookalike! But the price too overpriced though. Macdonald's breakfast set costs only $5? Hahaha but cannot be compared la as quoted by boy - It's the atmosphere and the feeling of people serving you that counts.

Loves!

On a side note, I happened to see loads of advertisements on Adora Green - 1st Yishun DBSS! Initially I had thought that the location is not ideal as it is too far from the MRT Station, but when I actually went online to search for the site location, I realised it was actually quite a good buy! Considering the nearby hospital, Safra, North Point Shopping Centre, walking distance to the MRT Station and Interchange! A really good catch comes at a price though - 4 room priced at minimum $420k (lower floors). I would prefer higher floors so that means a potential $500k. Almost twice the amount that a friend of mine had recently bought - 4 room BTO at Woodlands for $273k.

I really like Adora Green, considering the 40k grant that we can get since it's really near both our parents' places (like a few bus stops away) and it makes it easier for us to visit parents or vice versa. I think this is a very important aspect when it comes to choosing a home.

I told boy about Adora Green, the prices etc and his reply was as below:

"So let's say it cost $400k. Then we will need $20k just to make the down payment. Maybe we can write to the Parliament to tell them to expect a faster aging population and lower birth rate."

"I think no need. Can write to the Prime Minister instead. Dear Mr Prime Minister, this week we are thinking of buying a house. We hope to settle down on our own but we think this will take a long time. After obtaining our degrees, we need 2 years to clear our tuition loan. Then we will need another 2 years to have enough money to pay for a HDB down payment. Since it takes 5 years to get a house after we make our down payment, it will take us 9 years and 9 months to finally have a baby. Then we can spend the rest of our lives paying for the house. This does not sound like a good future. Can you advise us on which country is the best place to migrate?"

"Or.. Dear Mr Prime Minister, we are considering getting a house. We are planning to look at the show flat this weekend. Since it is a little far to walk and we won't really know where it is, we are planning to take a cab down. After checking my wallet, I realised I can only afford to take the bus. Having realised the situation, I dont know why I'm still considering to look at flats?"

Laughed my head off when I received these smses from him. Which is, I would say true especially for the 1st sms.

Something needs to done to address this problem, seriously.

Well so..... Adora Green a nono now. I am hoping in 1 or 2 years time, Sembawang, Khatib, Yio Chu Kang or Woodlands comes up with a DBSS!!

Hello all!

Sorry for the long absence. Nothing much to blog about though.

School's been 'great', CAs and FYP which got me sunburnt and carrying the heavy equipments. Did 2 experiments at Tiong Bahru Depot but received futile results. How am I going to write my 50 pages report??

My turn to look for jobs now since my graduation is just less than 3 months away! Now it's my turn to start worrying about my future career advancements. Whined to boy yesterday regarding jobs and he scolded me. Well, in fact I find his scoldings useful and it got into my head. I really should not just take the easy way out and be a teacher, which was not even my goal in the first place. He said, "Pursue what you want, and even if you don't get it, at least you land somewhere near!"

Looking at Management Associate type of jobs now because these are the type of jobs that do not require a very specific field and is able to expose me to all areas.

Business wise, I am increasing the frequency of

my launch for LFDB to once every week now, which means more frequent trips to the studio for photoshoots, more time to meet up with suppliers regarding self-manufacture apparels and wholesale, and more time to do the photo-editing. More and more work, but lesser time. I can feel the stress now!

But, I amhappy doing these! :)

Something to look forward to now is - Tadah! Graduation Trip!! Mad mad happy about it. Although I would have look forward more to travelling in United States, but Taiwan is not bad too! Boy and I had really wanted to travel to United States, but the cost of SGD12k for both of us was really way too expensive because we realised that the air tickets cost much more now. Australia was out too because of the recent floodings. Korea and Japan would be a good choice but boy was concerned about the language barrier since we are going on Free & Easy. Hong Kong was out too due to influenza. Thailand was my next favorite place but boy was concerned about our safety there since there's only 2 of us. So in the end, we chose Taiwan. Safe, affordable, fun. Just that I can foresee that I will have to take care of boy instead of the other way round because I can speak much better Chinese. LOL.

Decided on airlines and hotel already! Waiting for boy to apply for his leave and then we can book online straightaway! :) We will be travelling from 26th May to 1st June (7 days 6 nights), Free and Easy! :)

Something to look forward to! And I hope I have found a job by then!

Career Fair in NTU tomorrow. Arranged to go down with Wei Jing and distribute my resumes. I hope I get call down for interviews so that I can experience more of such corporate interviews which will hopefully get me more used to it.

Will be wearing this outfit tomorrow. Wee!

Bought the black formal heels and PU bag for interviews in future. Mad love for the bag!

Pardon the dirty mirror!

Loves

The very very painful heels. But formal though. I stood up and walk for 2 minutes and I can feel as if my feet is crushing.

Boy's Vday gift to me. Iphone charger! Which means I can still charge my phone when Im outside and my phone runs out of batt.

This does not come cheap though. Thanks boy! :)

And my Vday gift to him? A Couple Swedish Massage/Facial at Raffles Place :)

This is going to be a long long post ahead. Full of photos because I am too lazy to type all the words. As much as I hated, I still have to do my FYP Project and it gives me a really big headache when I thought of the Method of Procedure I had to come up with. I have already came up with one but I feel that there is something not quite right about it. I am a little hesitant to do the experiment because I felt unsafe dealing with real live gas in pipelines. Under the hot sun somemore!! Urghhhh.

The gas pipeline set up at Tiong Bahru Depot.

The pressure regulator and valves that I had to work with.

The valve to control the flow.

About food now. I had a steamboat dinner just before CNY Eve at Boat Quay at this Thailand restaurant. It was really really X 10 nice! Not the typical type of buffet, this one comes in a set. We ordered a medium set which cost $35. The chicken soup is the tastiest ever soup I have ever tasted for steamboats and the pork was so well-marinated that all 3 of us ordered another plate of pork which cost just $5! Oh ya, they serve only pork there, no chicken no beef. So it's non-halal. And you might be surprised that they actually gave us pork lard as oil for the bbq! This place is a must-try and I gave it a rating of 10/10!! :)

This medium set costs $35, which serves 3 person.

The cosy little restaurant tucked in a corner at Boat Quay.

The very tasty soup. The steamboat plate is so different from the traditional one right? Yes those are real holes and under these holes are burning coal, not by the gas cans!

Really really delicious pork. The oil will actually drip down into the hole to make the coal below burn more or the oil will also drip into the soup. A little sinful to drink the soup with oil (not much, only a little) but it really really is tasty.

Days before CNY, LFDB held a Model Search to look out for potential models to join our team. We had about 19 models to come down for the trial photoshoot at the studio but eventually, only 15 turned up which was still a lot! Considering we fully utilized the whole 3.5 hours at the studio.

Boy came over to my house to help me pack up the apparels for the trial shoot and he gave me a little surprise by stuffing the sculpture balloons into the luggage he had brought over.

So cute right! :))

On our way there!

So excited to meet the girls! Many thanks to boy for helping me during the trial shoot.

The next day, it was the first part of my long-awaited Christmas present - Voyage De La Vie Musical at Resorts World Sentosa! Second part will be in April! :) I am not allowed to take any photos in the auditorium so no pics on the musical! It was my first time attending a musical so I thought it was a nice experience. I wouldn't say the musical was great, but at least I enjoyed myself, which is what is most important :))

Voyage De La Vie!

Then we headed over to some Candy shop to try out their ice-cream and the pucker powder. The pucker powder was nice!! But a little expensive though, $5 for that one small stick.

Pucker powder!

My favorite photo of the day!

3rd day of CNY was at floating platform for the River Angbao 2011 with boy. We wanted to play the Uncle Ringo but because I was wearing a dress, I couldnt :(

Whole mouth full of melted cotton candy

The year of pig.

Grumpy man.

My GEO contact lenses which just arrived 2 weeks ago! I had the grey super magic series but on my eyes it looked like it's blue? Super addicted to it!!

Anyway, I had just signed up a package with Fitness First. I decided that I should keep myself healthy now and that I should at least do some exercise instead of always sleeping at home and lazing around. The package doesn't come cheap but at least the pain of money will force me to be more motivated to always make a trip down to the place for some form of exercise. I can even join all their programs such as kickboxing, yoga, pilates etc as many times as I like. After exercise, I can even go for their sauna! No need to bring towels because they provide there, no need to bring drinks because they provide there too! I can even bathe at their really clean toilets after a workout. I think it is worth it.

I am getting myself a personal trainer to train me and this cost $142 per month. Admin and membership fee will cost additional $140 for the first time. I am getting the 4-months package so I hope I do lose some weight by then!!

Boy and I have decided that we shall go to either US or Europe for my graduation trip in end May or early June. I managed to check out the air tickets to Switzerland (Interlaken), Italy (Rome) and Paris at around $3k inclusive of airport taxes per person! Even air tickets to US cost at least $1.3k, plus all the domestic flights, car, expenses and accommodation, he expected the cost to be $5k per person for 2-3 weeks. I am not sure how we are going there but he assure me that it's fine when I told him that I can only just afford my own air tickets there.

Even if it's just a trip to nearby countries like Thailand or even Malaysia, I am more than happy because it's the company that I enjoy more :))

On a side note, I sat down at my desk and thought about my life. I suddenly came to realised that I am really blessed to have a nice family, and the best boyfriend who's there for me no matter what. Priceless. Any amount of money would never have been able to buy the bliss that I am having now.

I am a blessed girl.