Recordings of Life

Vivo, Flyer and Betty Crocker

It's been a week. Been to loads of places, gotta thanks my great cousin and her husband for bearing me and letting me stay with them.

'Cui kueh'

Beetroot and carrot juice , and avocado juice

It's Vivo City! :)

In Vivo City, there's a place called Daiso where the shop sells EVERYTHING from toothbrush to food to baskets to pans. ALL at SGD2.

Then we had BBQ and steamboat (much like the ones in Penang)

Somewhere in Toa Payoh

Roast pork and duck

Spinach with egg and kichi

Deep fried chicken

Chilli Tofu

Dinner at Singapore Flyer's Popeyes

Coleslaw, mashed taters, fried chicken and bread with jam

World's tallest wheel.

Crazy entrance fee.
The capsule/pod.

Ghost!

The following photos do not do justice to the food! Bad camera settings :(

Chocolate Moist Cake!

Cake and pork ribs baking in the oven.

Salad

Oh, the divinity!!! (it looks much more juicier than this)

My happy meal *sniff

The weird-shaped and lopsided cake

It's a sinful pleasure......

Ikea Tampines

Short post. More pics. Cooked fish curry for cousin & hubby (hers).

Quick snap to remind you what I look like.

Instant curry

Cousin's place. Notice a lot of Buddha statues. It's cool.

Dinner. There's another egg & meat custard but forgot to take pic.

Ta-da! My first self-made ever fish curry.

For my new room :)

At last.

Finally.

I no longer have any commitments to USM.

I no longer have to rush for assignments, projects, club duties, or meetings.

I am no longer bonded to Lifeguard Corps.

I do not have to worry about whether my thesis is good enough for my lecturer or whether I live up to his expectations.

Yippee!!

Anyway, now in the airport, waiting for flight AK127 to Singapore, where I'll be spending the next week and a half at my cousin's place. Initially planned to take up scuba diving course over there cos her husband, Ian is the one who offered to teach me.

Manatau. Si kUi. Ian told me once that if I feel like taking up scuba, I can always go to him cos he will teach me for free. That was about 2 years ago lar.

Then this year's Chinese New Year, I asked him again, in a kesi-kesi sort of way, cos I still thought that, maybe, the offer is still available. But then he said it will cost me around 600-700. RM. SO I thought, ok, that seems fine, still way cheaper than the ones they're offering in Malaysia, which is around RM1300 per person for about 3 days/3 nights.

Recently, again, I asked him how much it's going to be and this time he told me to go the website and check for the price!!! Si kui x 100. So I checked, and it's around SGD560 which is roughly about RM1280+. I was like $*^%*&^*$&(&(#.

In the end, I just decided to go there and have fun, but postpone my scuba classes to some other time when I can earn that much money instead of spending them all when I still very much need cash.

Min Chi Chi, my cousin (that's Min sis to you) very early requested for me to buy 2 packs of bhe pe sor biscuits from Him Heang and also 2 packets of mee goreng from a mamak stall somewhere in Air Hitam.

Job Offer
I received not one, but two job offers! I never thought that I am that marketable lol. But then again, maybe the companies are just desperate for workers and couldn't care less. I will be starting work on the 12th and it's going to be Fairchild :) I'm happy with my decision and I hope it will be a start of many more great things to come.

University Achievements

I have certainly come a long way since my high school days, where me and my fellow gang would create so-called havoc and every decision we make is based on majority. Then, our favourite pastime would be window shopping and gossiping.

Now, I can finally look back with a sense of achievement.Feels like I'm tooting my own horn, but it's my blog anyway.

I have:

-Been able to live on my own, independently.

-Discovered a new hobby - cooking.

-Completed all 4 levels of lifesaving
Best of all... is being able to pass Award of Merit, the toughest, in my opinion of the four levels. Best time was 57secs.

-Taken part in DHL Lifesaving competition while my freestyle was still very much cacat-ish, but managed, along with the rest of the team to sweep 3 Gold and 1 Bronze medal.

-Became an instructor myself, just as my own instructor was.

-Organised Aquatic Night with the committee and was the Director.

-Also organised Interaction Day in Sungai Sedim, Kedah, for a 2D 1N stay, which admitedly was not easy.

-For all the competitions joined and organising, was invited to Malam Anugerah Sukan and received 2 certs: Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang and also Sijil Separuh Warna.

-Exco in Lifeguard Corps for two year, which has taught me lots of stuff, things that you don't learn reading or studying.

-Completed my final year project, which also was not easy, using WIEN2k - Linux.

-Made a lot of good friends, shared special moments that are really sweet to recall.
My lifeguard friends:
Evan: loud, cynic, paranoid, funny with lots of things to say, thick lips.
Soon Jiun: lots of opinions, loves to talk.
Kenneth: big eater, big mouth, lucky person, everything seems to fall into place for him.
Chin Teng: happy-go-lucky, tidak apa attitude, wants people to be happy.
Hong En: dark, funny, baja hitam.

My coursemates:
Sin Yee: the bubbly girl who loves fruits.
Kim: loves dogs like me, soft spoken, but can show garang also!
Ee May: petite, eats no vegetables.
Chun Yee: smart, breaks into a dance suddenly, tongue twisters.
Esmond: St. Esmond, great actor, big smile.
Dawson: BIG laugh, big belly, easy to talk to, great advice.

- Of course, how can I forget to add that I also got myself involved in a relationship with a university-mate? :) well.. if you call that an achievement.

- Will edit once I can think of something more to add.

Elated~!

Soon, I will be joining the working forces!

Very excited and raring to go. Hope this goes for a long time.... the enthusiasm I mean.

Pressure Sets In

Again, another period of exam wave. The same feelings of panic, procrastination, bleary-eyed, dreariness all mixed into one ball and stuff down my throat.

And again, I make decisions, say words that I know I will regret once I come to my senses. But somehow, they slipped out, and the damage is done.

Back to Penang tomorrow, to resume book poring and facts memorisation. Good luck to me in my first paper *forced smile*.

Before that, I just need to let something else out.

SIGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Feels slightly better.

Bronze Cross Exam

22nd March 2008 - Was another hot day, but proud to say that all my (and Chin Teng's) students - Albert, Kar Keong, Wei Wah, Edwin, Xiao Bai, Guat Hoe and Sae Woon - passes.

Thanks for giving me this great experience of teaching such a blur and funny group of people.

Malam Anugerah Sukan

26th March, 2008 at g-Hotel. Evan claimed that the event will be so boring that basically we're only supposed to sit and wait for the night to end. Oh well, it may be so some of the time, but it's my first time to g-Hotel! Have always heard of the simplistic, cool interior of the place, and couldn't wait to get there.

Reached there late (again) cos of u la tinyen, circa 8.20pm but it's not that bad as the big-shots are not there yet, with the vice-chancellor being the biggest shot. Was there with Chin Teng, he had to drive TY's car as I was wearing heels, couldn't manage the clutches with those pointy things.

Malam Anugerah does not have a theme (boring fact #1), but dress code is formal, and er, bersopan. Guys can wear batik or whatever shirt that looks presentable lah. Even with us arriving so late, we had to wait some more, hence the loads of volunteer models and unwilling photographers.

L-R: Tze Yang, Chin Teng, Evan, SooBee, KevinLing, PoKoon, LyeSiong, SoonCien & bottom: SoonJiun.

Yippee! I'm famous! :P but then so dumbo wan.... I had two pictures in the booklet, one for Anugerah Perkhidmatan and another for half colour cert. The other picture printed my name as Ong Su Yim. Cau Cieh's was worse; Khor Lau Lieh, muahaha!

Then with the girls...

I wore a black top which my sister forgot to bring back to US and my mom's batik-ish sarung. Love it when I don't have to fork out a bundle of cash to look good :)

My expectations were high for the food~ but damn! Soooo disappointing. We had an eight-course meal (sounds auspicious) with sub-standard imitations.

Two hot and 1 cold?.... Sien.... Even at Chinese restaurants, they serve at least 5 different types okie....

A bit too ovious what's hot and what's cold. There was this salad thingy, with honeydew cubes and ham, kung po chicken or somewhat and some deep fried shrimps.

Next up.... we had this very measley shark's fin soup look-alike. -__- sweet corn and crab meat (!)

Boneless chicken with black pepper sauce. yuppee. The sauce was not bad lar, but one thing is that, the servers are like, not properly trained. They are not even able to scoop food professionally. And the food portion! My god... I think all those 8 courses will only fill an eighth of Kenneth's massive stomach. From the first course, those at my table are already making arrangements for supper.

The fish tastes kinda yucky. I can actually smell the fishyness even through all that thick flour and deep fried and sauce. The fish meat is even pinkish. Sigh.

Next course was this broccoli braised lo han style, whatever that means but I did not take a pic of these: me, popo and evan went for a quick toilet break. So I replace the boring vegetable with an even more exciting picture ... ;)

During the broccoli course right... That was also when they started calling out names of captains to take certs. Just as Evan was about to bite into a broc, I warned him, eat la, later pieces of the veg gets stuck to your teeth then you'd go up and give a big smile at the VC and you'll look real cool. That vainer then pushed his broc aside.

Then then hor, the server had given Po Koon this really huge broccoli, then we started teasing her to just eat la, can practise mar. lolz

Does this look like fried prawns in golden garlic? And what's with the bombastic description? Of course garlic is gold... what other colour can they come in?

Yong Chow fried rice, whatever that is.

Longan jelly dessert, too sweet!

I had not yet taken the pics of me taking the certs up on stage, they're with Po Koon, but this is as close as it can get la I suppose.

Soo Bee was also one of the nominees for Olahragawati. There were six nominees, 5 Chinese and 1 Malay girl. Well, you can guess la who took the award. Hmmph. But no matter, cos the award of all awards is the Purple Cert, which 3 got.

I think this pic really look nice cos it totally focuses on the 3 winners, Yuen Hoong (karate-do), Soo Bee and Tze Yang. This award totally beats the olahra-whatever-ti.

Lobby:

With Chern Chung and Abe

After the Anugerah night, it sort of gives you a sad feeling. All your hard work and contributions are recognised... in a piece of paper.

Aquatic Night 2008

By far, this has got to be one of the worst nights ever. Coincidentally, Aquatic Night is also the election day.

I started to get ready roughly around 5 plus. I thought a good 1 hour and half would be sufficient time for me to bathe, blow dry my hair, apply make up and get dressed. Boy I was so wrong. My hair took a long time to dry and the frizzes kept coming out that I had to apply and reapply hairspray.

By the time I was done with my hair it was already 6.15. No call from TY yet, fine, rush rush rush. Started on the makeup and then received call from TY. Told him I need another 10 mins or so. He said fine, he'll be going over to Dell and in 15 at my place. Put whatever decorative stuff on myself, felt like a Christmas tree by then.

7pm, TY reached and I have yet to pack my purse, shoved the key into the keyhole and told TY to let himself in. After like a few minutes or so he did not come in, I went to check and he had this very annoyed kind of look and pointed out that there's no key to the padlock on the door. It was, sheesh! The damn padlock was never been used for the whole of 1 year I was there, and there was no spare key in the house and no bloody other housemates around! I'm locked in!

Panicked, I realised I did not have any of the other housemates' number, tried to call the numbers on the phone bill and finally got hold of one of my housemates. Phone was turned off. Tried again on other numbers and got the other housemate's number. This time she picked up.

"Har, I'm already at my hometown. Sorry le, I didn't know that you did not have the key." Shit I tell you. I was so kan ciong and by then was sweating like a leaked roof. Some more, although I felt that in this case, it was not my fault but apparently it was not so. How the bloody hell I know that the housemate would have locked the goddamn padlock? And although I did recall that I have their numbers, I do not. I guess it's my fault plus a part of bad luck. Finally Chin Teng got hold of a locksmith. This whole fiasco cost me RM45. Just to bloody get the door open. I felt so pai seh that I made the others who followed TY late. Soon Jiun, Chin Teng and their respective girlfriends.

Along the Jelutong Expressway, as if the day could not have been worse, we came across an accident scene. Recognising the car as one of the senior LGs, we stopped by the side. There was one pedestrian hurt, and already have been sent to the clinic. None of my seniors were injured.

Reached Cititel at 8.30pm. The function already started around 7.50pm. By that time, I can feel the hate wave generating towards me and just was not in the mood for a lot of eating.

Sweet: with Soo Bee and Popo.

The darn hair.

Belles, L-R: SY, Chin Yee, Kia Ngee, Sook Fang, Elaine and Kher Shein

With Evan and his superb costume.

With some of my students(the 3 monkeys behind me) back row: Lye Siong, Edwin, Kar Keong and Wei Wah. Front: Kevin, me and James.

Xiao Bai (back) and Ming Chee , Swee Lee.

With Jo Lynn, me holding a lantern thingie that the juniors made for we final year gift. It's way so much better than the last year's. A lot of effort they must have put in, those things look like miniature gadgety stuff.

Initially wanted to go clubbing with the others, but the night was stopped very abruptly and everyone was advised to leave for home early, due to possible riots. Too bad it had to happen on my final year, did not even take pics with everyone yet, no group photo! Sigh... like I said, it was not a night to remember. Maybe it is, but for all the wrong reasons.

March 2nd '08

Spider cake:

Us at Sega Fredo with a bunch of friends.

Alex and Way Kuan

Victor and his gal.

Victor, Adrian, Kevin and Alex.

Cute boxers with big-mouthed monkey blowing trumpets and drinking champagne :D

Supposed to have this surprise for TY at Seoul Garden in Gurney Plaza. So had it all planned, told Evan, Kenneth, Soon Jiun, Soon Wen, Wei Inn, Joshua and a few others to just be there earlier then when I drag TY along then he'll be so touched to see all of them there that he'll be so moved and speechless for once in his whole darn life.

Of course it didn't work out as planned.

Reached Gurney plaza, messaged Evan:

`We're here.'

Did not receive any replies, so, fine. Went on ahead to the makan place. Like so duh, then I see a few of them there gathered right in front of Seoul Garden, with Evan carrying a bag with a square box in it. Big surprise.

Grossest birthday present.....

Had this really good cheese cake that Evan bought from some bakery near his place. The best!

Bra hunting for the next victim.