Went out with my best friend in office (since I returned to work) to try some escargots, coz he’d never had them before. I remembered I was just randomly saying that I have a craving for escargots, and my friend said that he’d never tried it before, so we agreed on having it someday.
I must say that I had a really good dinner that I haven’t had in a really long while.
So we decided on where to eat last week via Hungrygowhere.com. One of our client’s atas restaurant popped-up, and my friend picked it but the price was wayyyy out of my budget (I could buy a cajon with that amount) and some bad reviews were present too, so I clicked around and spotted Cotton Bleu. That had all positive ratings and reviews.
It’s a very nice place with a nice ambience. I realise that there are some pretty good cafes/bistros in the area that I could check out.
Anyway, Cotton Bleu is located next to Ice Edge 2!!! Nice.
Didn’t take much pictures with my DSLR. Gosh I just need something that can focus at a nearer distance =/
We got the set meal thingy. Haha.
Atas places serve bread!! Cause of my eczema returning today lol. Blame it on my greediness.
The reason why we were there. The escargots are just too good. Comparable to the one I had on Royal Caribbean! (wil blog about it soon!)
Poulet Basquaise – Basically chicken and pasta in tomato kinda sauce. The chicken here is just heavenly softttt. And the pasta was cooked just right omg!! I seldom eat chicken when I see the bones, but I finished this one.
Boeuf bourguignon – Pretty filling according to my friend! He has a way big appetite and if it’s filling for him, it means something. I tried a bit of the beef, soft and has a nice taste to it. Nothing to strong for people who doesn’t like beef.
Banana Turon – This. Is. Good.
Lavender Infused Cake – To be honest, I only know how Lavender smells like, but am guessing that the little bits in the cake are lavender flowers? The top of the cake is melted sugar. Crispy and nice. Just feeling hungry thinking about it.
(Wah just had a Déjà vu… As though I’d typed the above before)
Oh and the chef was nice who came out and asked if our food was alright
Cotton Bleu
205 Upper Thomson Road
Past week was rather confusing and upsetting. But hey it’s all ok now.
Don’t wish to quarrel with a good friend again.
And when I get upset, it’s just amazing what things I will do that I won’t regret :X
Had a good conversation, and I just feel that some people are misunderstood.
Just hope that I’m right.
I realised that I haven’t blogged about the Taiwan trip!! So here’s a short one!
I took quite a lot of pics, but edited to the 400+ left on my Facebook.
We were all quite lucky to be honest, because we had Ryan, a local, to bring us around. And he knew places that Singaporeans won’t usually visit when they go to TW, like 石门水库, the top of this dead volcano, this hot spring place that locals know about, and showed us things that Taiwanese do, eat and drink at leisure. It was quite cool that his uncle knew a lot of people and we were able to go to some places at a discounted price.
Of course, we did visit the usual like Yeh Liu Geopark, XiMenDing, Shilin, Raohe, Taipei 101 and we saw Sakura!
The temperature there was pretty cold, ranging from 10-14 degrees and it rained everyday.
Oh and I saw a cute eye candy this trip (haha just like the last trip!)
Some pictures:
When we arrived.
Ryan, first time seeing him after a few months. Gosh I miss him now
Reminds me of HK tbh
Our awesome hotel
Day 1 view from room. The only day it didn’t rain.
Their temporary “ez-link” pass
XiMenDing
Awesome 鲁肉饭 braised meat rice
Their fried oyster omelette, exactly the same as the 8 Degrees Taiwan bistro in SG
Some pig’s parts… No one else dared to try it.
White bitter gourd with mandarin pear juice – AWESOME. Not everyone liked it though.
BBT. We have this in SG?
Everyone, from taxi drivers, to hotel bellboys, in TW is just damn nice, except towards mainland Chinese from what i observed =/
Pig’s blood and smelly tofu soup. Brave enough to try it, and it’s just damn nice
Fishing. I felt that this was a bit too cruel so I refused to try.
Prawning
At Yehliu. I love rocks and history.
The hotspring place where we had a free hotspring ticket after we had our meal. Had to be totally nude, but had our own private hot spring bath haha
Dead volcano, 小油坑, visibility was bad and all we saw at the top was fog
花海 where there was a farm.
Hello
Bunnies
Floating on 石门水库! I feel so lucky to be able to do this.
冰糖葫芦 They look like little faces with sunglasses haha
View from the top
The cute guy
Took train to the top to put these lanterns.
Awesome soya bean stuff here
The salty beancurd was surprisingly better than the sweet one.
Overrated. Food is just like normal foodcourt stuff
Beef curry
With Ryan
My loot
That’s all! I guess I will go back to TW someday, but I kinda like HK better =/ Maybe it’s due to my roots. Both have their own pros and cons.
Since the last entry, work has been taking up my life, focusing a lot of my work and finally there’s some achievement.
Today is payday, and I didn’t hit commission again. But whatever, I think my boss knows about my attitude towards work. I work hard, I work my best. Yes I aim for the target, but if I don’t hit it, I aim again next month. I prepare for the goals next month if I don’t hit it this month.
Anyway, I remembered there’s this Chinese teacher I had who used to always say, “忍耐也是有限度的.” The class used to laugh about this. But I really understood then what she meant, and I still understand it now.
Sometimes, I just don’t get it why my sister and everyone is like that. Then I remember karma and that I can change it.
Anyway, somehow I am much calmer now. Nicole said something really relevant “What for? Doesn’t do your health any good”.
So my sister deleted me from her twitter that day.
AND I WAS JUST SO DAMN MAD.
She just don’t understand.
Granted, some people have told me that I should talk to her, I tried asking her why, and she was like “No reason”. THEN, she went to complain to my mum that I replied her too much. Ironic much? And yet someone was talking about having dialogues in the family when she doesn’t even want to speak the truth.
She was the one who added me on Twitter first – I’d signed up twitter years ago, back in 2007 when I was in Chengdu – and I hesitated to accept the request and thought for a long while about it. But then, I decided so because she is my sister afterall. If i could let my friends see what i think about things, I should let her too, and hence I accepted.
I guess all these isn’t appreciated at all. Just because I replied to help her, encourage her, and she gives me this kind of attitude in return.
She doesn’t know how hurt I am, and how kinship is important. She could have said nicely that she doesn’t like me replying. Whatever happened to dialogue? It’s all a lie.
This just reminded me of the Social Psychology of New Media module that I took in NUS. Social media kinda ruins lives like this, but it also teaches that we should learn how to communicate without it. If people choose to behave in this sort of manner, we cannot blame the social media but about offline communication. Most people do not know that because social media is now in such a big parts of our lives, we should actually learn how to deal with it and the emotional attachments that comes together.
I talked to Audrey about it, and she was in the same situation too. She told me that she doesn’t give a shit about it anymore. Some people just don’t understand kinship and that we care.
Anyway, I can see that she’s trying to be nice to me by talking now, but I just still feel damn annoyed and angry. Maybe it will pass someday.
Can’t remember when it was when we roughly started training for this concert. Sometime around October I guess?
Many has passed through this phase of my life, and many has came into my life.
For myself, through the preparations of this concert, I:
Took up cello
Got a cajon
Took up bass
Moved on in life
Made new friends that are wayy important in my life
Became more open
Almost joined Chingay
Lol.
We used to start having sectionals, to prepare for this concert. Then somehow it stopped, but anyway, supper became a regular activity. Haha.
One of the earlier suppers
I also almost joined Chingay around this period, went for the first practice, but before anything happened, I was told that all A&C members were put to the reserved list. I wanted to fight for it, but to be honest, I just didn’t want to fight for myself any longer. I have been fighting so much for myself so many years, and have been standing up for myself for so long. No one ever stood for me. So maybe, I should start standing up and helping others. Looking back, this was the main reason. Or at least, this is what I feel now.
So many things!
How should I continue?
Anyway, throughout this journey, I made lots of friends, learnt new stuff, my confidence grew towards the drumset. I am definitely still determined to work on it.
Finally it just makes sense about prayer, about how to pray.
On concert day, basically everything just past very quickly. All concert days are kinda special. Magical things happen. You get that sort of bravery that you don’t usually have. All my calmness just went away. Haha. Anyway, I’m just really glad that I have my BFF Javier, Kat and Kenneth with me. They have always been around helping me, giving me advice, and saving all the rubbish that I’d done. Somehow with BFF around, I feel responsible for being the 大姐 but yet, because of the difference in generation, can be young in order to be able to understand him and chat with him. It’s just that awesome feeling.
I’ve been pausing quite a few times while writing this. I don’t know how to continue, how to turn all these feelings into words.
Throughout these months, I’ve been taking lots of pictures, so, I shall just write some story behind the pictures that I took on concert day, and let it do the honours.
The boys, Lionel, Wilson and Winston. They were chatting about school. o.O Quite insightful to hear them talk. I couldn’t join in the conversation, so I just sat there and listened.
I didn’t know Lionel’s name until after the concert believe it or not. As for Wilson, he has been around since a few years ago. I still remember the first practice that he came for, and we had lunch. Haha. Winston’s Wilson’s army friend, and he brought him to join us. I remember the first time Winston came, and the sound that came out from the trumpet just totally wow-ed me. He’s AWESOME. It’s not always that you get to see talent, and this one, I was afraid to lose; Whether as a friend or player. He looked like someone who you can be good friends with.
Bummed around and then went upstairs. Found a flower on the Glocks. No idea why it was there as it wasn’t there the night before:
The guy in black’s Beng Lay’s son. Shaun is his name (not sure which spelling it should be). He was pretty quiet all the time in training when he was around. I only found out his name at the end of the whole concert. Haha. Quite nice to see a quiet person smile
Bad settings and light condition
Ohh, and Weili when she found out Shaun’s Beng Lay’s son.. Haha. Her expression was like
We had rehearsals, where obviously I ran around and climbed chairs to take pictures. Here are some (the rest are on Facebook):
Mr Wu Ee Lung singing. He’s a renowned finger painter from San Yi Finger Painting Society. So glad to have him back again after so many years.
Cellists and Double bassists. The double bass player on the right is actually SCO’s cellist. So cool!
The oboist is called Nikki. He doesn’t talk much too =/
Anyway there was this segment where there’s a little music prodigy who played her violin with one of Singapore’s best pianist. Took this when I went upstairs and saw them rehearsing: Not the man standing there. He’s one of the sound group member
So BFF decided to have someone put makeup for him. That was the reason why I had to went up to get my camera: to take a picture for him. HAHA
Then Weili helped him put eyeliner too:
Backstage had lots of happening stuff going on, like taking pics with everyone. I was nervous like crap then, but still managed to have loads of fun:
BFFs!
Haha i basically followed Javier up the stairs to take pics for him with everyone. Haha. And he was nice enough to help me take a pic with Winston.
So paiseh my whole face turned red.
Took lots of shots of Javier (coz we were reallly bored). I like this one:
Dr. Ho said the above pic lack an “F”. “Stage Fright”.
Oh and I didn’t know Dr. Ho is a “Dr” because he does music. Haha. Now I know! And he doesn’t show any hint of it as I know we are lousy at music, but he’s not that sort of person
Then so fast it was the intermission. Took pics with friends who came and said hi: Kee Chong and a Regent Sec member
Me and Kee Chong. Wilson took this pic. And so funny la, he was saying that we have a huge gap in between which was a bit awkward coz we dunno how else to take. Then anyway, Wilson wanted to have a pic with me, well this one is his example of a no gap picture:
Such a nice person!
Huimin and I
Me, Serene and Carol
Then it was the second half. Screwed up quite a lot. What happened was that I couldn’t find my file. Which turned out to be on the floor next to a drum. T.T Javier was there to cover for me. But I was so upset. Though what done is done.
Kat’s friends who came to support
Bi Neng and Audrey came too!
The rest of the pics are on my facebook page. Not sure if anyone reads this blog still hehe. Just wanted to keep some memories here for future’s sake.
Had so much fun! I just really wish that the friends who I’ve made on that day, took pics with, even though it was the last day, will be people who I will see in future once again, who I will know better in future. Sometimes in life, you don’t get that chance again, and sometimes you will. I just wish it will for everyone.
Sometimes I think asking to be a person’s friend is just so difficult. But we must always try can’t we?
1) Official photographer for SD Kenshu 2011
One of the best experiences ever, and got to make new friends and learn from them!
Thanks Benjamin, Ghim Seng and Jovien!
2) My relationship status changed
This happened on 24 March 2011. I remember the pain then, but thankfully I can’t feel it right now. After all the truths were presented to me. Status now dropped to acquaintances. I don’t think he has all the right values anymore. I wish his new girl all the best, if that is how his character is.
3) I scored the best results in my final semester
4) Graduated with 2nd Lower Honours
Mmm. CAP improved as well!
5) Shared my testimonial at NUSSD O&G
Topics were on my grades and also how the breakup changed me for the better.
6) Found a full-time job
7) Passed Buddhist Study exams
8 ) Planned and executed SNCO Photobook project
9) Joined SD Wings and got to work on 2 publications
Hopefully in future I can contribute more. Because I feel I am still quite new with this.
Thanks Yin Jie, Tin Lay.
10) Spent 12 days in Hong Kong
ooo I haven’t blogged about this. But yea, had an awesome load of fun!! Check out Facebook for pics.
Thank you Audrey, Bi Neng, Tommy and Tricia!
11) Tried fishing at a kelong
And I enjoyed it!
12) Arranged music and we performed it!
Marry You by Bruno Mars
13) Became closer to more people
I didn’t exactly neglect my friends, but now I feel the need to be closer to them. I must remember not to focus my whole world on my future relationships. Not that it is not important, but if it is what I am revolving around, it is wrong.
14) Westlife!
But they split up… =(
15) Started learning the cello
Still waiting for my own though.
Lessons have been awesome!
Wonder what my 2012 will be like. Some plans are already formulating in my head!!
Funny how now when I listen to this song, I don’t think of the past but my current situation. The not-sure-what-the-future-is situation. lol
Anyway, I hope this will be the last time I blog about this.
I still do think of the past once in a while, and that I offered to give this person a family, extended family that he never had, shared my parents and things, my life with him. And after everything this person just decided that “Oh, I shall just move on with life.”
I was wondering why someone would so easily just let me go, vs other guys who cannot accept the breakup easily, and I realised that it isn’t about a guy vs girl thing, but rather, the fact that he didn’t give in emotionally. He is in his own world. Sure, I do know his parents, his sister, his sister’s in-laws, but that was it. Nothing else was shared with me. He doesn’t contact his extended family (despite me encouraging him to, but then again they’re complicated), he doesn’t even want to teach me the cello or guitar (I did ask, in case you guys think I’m like trying to let him try to read my mind – NO). We created our own world, where I think I am more friends with his friends than him.
Sure, he has his friends too, but sad to say, I don’t know his closest friends. On one hand, he kept telling me that they aren’t good people, on the other hand he hangs out with them every week. And he also keeps telling me that they feel he shouldn’t be with me because I always check on him (e.g. asks if he’s home coz he would stay out really late, or remind him to go home earlier because he has church the next day).
But whatever, I found out his lies, and that he lied to me. So I’m not gonna care anymore. I’m quite curious to hear what his friends will say about his new gf. lol.
I’d actually written the above about 1 week ago, and am continuing this now.
2011. What a year definitely. I would say that I wasted 3 years + of my life in a relationship that didn’t have any value in it. Okay, value that I got was definitely what I shouldn’t do in my next relationship, and the people that I shouldn’t be with. Quite sad to say that I definitely wasted a lot of time that I could have used it on better things to do. Sure, we looked and things at the same direction and also encouraged each other, but our lives couldn’t be more different. I was being led by a leash on many things. I spent too much time idling at his house, and he, on his games. There wasn’t any value. I feel that in relationships, we should have created more things together that would make our lives more beneficial, but looking back, there aren’t any.
I remembered Audrey once telling me that she felt that after the 80th anniversary celebrations, her life has been improving. That time I told her that mine went downhill after it, but now, I think it was a turning point and change of karma for me. My life, once that deadlock has been relased, has been improving. Sure, there are hardships, but after that deadlock, there’s nothing that cannot be solved with NMRK. Took me one hard lesson to learn how true Buddhism is.
I set a few goals for myself last year, and as a review, they are:
Graduate from NUS – DONE
Find a job – DONE
Have at least 20k in my bank account – FAIL
Visit Australia – 2012?
Visit Hong Kong – DONE
Get Grade 8 in Music Theory (ABRSM) – Decided to drop this
Exercise more
Stay healthy
Share more about Buddhism
Compile a photobook for SNCO’s 10th anniversary – DONE
Not too bad I must say
Of course, I finally got to actually learn the cello!!! Ahh!! Still am in awed of the mystic law to how things turned out with this, being able to learn from someone who I really think is good
Things I want to do:
Improve in percussion skills (work consistently)
Play cello well (and seriously)
Be a better person to my family and friends
Do more kosen-rufu
More exposure to live music
live life fuller
Travel to 2 countries
Stay healthier
Work on 1 major photography project
Have at least 20k in my bank accounts
Be able to communicate better
Hit my commission consistently at work
Anyway, had major change of plans today as Desmond’s brother was hospitalised. Going for a DMKK instead of photography outing as originally planned. Pray that he is okay
I think it was the 5th lesson. haha. dunno. Been enjoying all my lessons so far that time flies really fast between each lesson and even during lesson itself. Was kinda scared still until last lesson for some reason which I cannot comprehend. Perhaps because I chanted for it.
Yesterday’s lesson was supposed to be at my place (and first afternoon lesson as well), but about 30mins before my lesson, my teacher called to ask if I could go over to his place. So I immediately packed the cello and went over! This cello’s endpin was pretty loose and it just dropped out when I stepped on the bus -.- then the cello case seems to be falling apart… =/ Think should get a new case soon I hope!
Anyway, lesson yesterday was the first time I get to read notes and play together. It’s pretty tough I should say. Have to take note of the bowing direction, intonation, notes, fingering on the strings, which string to play. Wahhh.. I almost wanted to cry man. My brain is definitely very slow. And I took a long sigh and my teacher was surprised and looked at me saying, “oh my god are you stressed? Don’t stress!” Lol.
Anyway i have like 7 things to practice from what teacher lent me…
Posted by Jasmine on Dec 22, 2011 in Life, Thoughts
I haven’t posted much pictures, so shall do a post with pictures!!
Last week (Friday), went to Melissa’s place for dinner! Haha. I was one of the last few to be there, so ended up feeling a bit odd. And played with Melissa’s dog named “Girl-girl”. She responses to her name and loves “head massages”. hahaha. So funny. Anyway here’s a group pic!
Talked to Melissa’s dad. Or rather, her dad talked to me. It’s amazing how 1 year ago he was in coma and everything, and now he’s all lively, and telling me about his testimonials, the gosho, etc. I didn’t really want to stop him from talking and everything so I just sat there and listened.
Saturday saw me going to Yong Rui’s Zone GM. I felt kinda bad because my sis was performing at our own zone GM and I chose to go to other people’s zone GM to watch others perform. But I’d actually fought with myself about this decision for a while. And it’s mainly between 3 things: SNCO, my own zone GM and Yong Rui’s. All happened at the same time.
The final decision was made because I felt that I should go to a Zone GM, and that since my family were going to our own GM, I decided to go to another. Trust me, 1 year ago, I would have chosen to just go for SNCO and not bother with any of the decision.
It is an improvement!
When I reached HQ, I met Jia Hao, Melissa, and then found Tommy taking a nap, and was introduced to Yong Rui’s gf by Pei Shan. Actually, I think I’d only met Yong Rui once before?
Anyway, as someone not classically trained in music (read: noob), I really enjoyed their performance (piano and double bass). Really interesting. I definitely need to up all these listening skills (after listening to what Mr Lim told me).
Anyway, we took some pics!
I took Denelle (Yong Rui’s gf) taking a pic of them.
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Check out Facebook for pics.
