Certified First Aider

Guess who is a certified first aider now?

Not me but Jhon!

He has been going to classes for the past few weeks, took a test on Wednesday and passed with flying colors.

I am proud of him because he has to ‘make out’ with a dummy. (Jhon has an irrational fear of mannequins). He survived although it does not mean he has overcome his fear. I don’t blame him though, some mannequins are so freaking scary that sometimes it creeps ME out.

Now, whenever someone is injured, he can be a hero. He is pretty cocky (in a joking manner) too. Whenever I hurt myself (which happens a lot) he will go with his ‘superhero’ voice “I CAN HELP YOU! I AM A CERTIFIED FIRST AIDER!!” *flaunts card*

Haha I just let him bask in his achievement. Congratulations Jhon! Hopefully, your first experience is not with a saggy auntie or uncle with no teeth! =P

Trying out Jump Shots

I was at Universal Studios Singapore over the weekend (will post after I go through the photos) and Jhon bought me an overpriced balloon.

It was in the late afternoon and done with the rides and late lunch so we were just walking around the area with Fizah.

I was being hyper so I thought, why not we try jump shots?

First shot, Jhon snapped too early.

Second shot, not bad but concept was the balloon was lifting me away. Balloon going was going to opposite direction.

Third shot, Jhon snapped too late. I have already landed.

Got it at the fourth shot.

Pretty good in capturing the action but I wish the picture would be more focused and it seems to be slightly over exposed. Other than that, it's okay, I guess. I like it that I happened to wear my "Catch me, If you can" shirt in this shot. hehe

Need more room for improvement!

   

Balut in 1 Month's Time

The time has come, after 4.5years of relationship; I am finally going to visit my boyfriend’s home town, Pasig, Philippines. 

Jhon’s family has been asking for me and since he has been asked to be a best man for his cousin’s wedding on April, I was invited. 

I am nervous and excited at the same time. I am mostly nervous because not only I am meeting his family for the first time, I am also meeting his grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins and friends at one swoop! I am already socially awkward as it is so this is rather nerve wrecking. It is also will be interesting to experience a filipino wedding and you know.. maybe take a few notes. =P

Other than that, I am excited because this will be my first 5 day holiday trip and without my family or even FIZAH! Obviously, my first trip to Philippines AND I will attempt to eat BALUT. 

It is one of Philippines’ exotic foods which is a boiled pre-developed duck’s egg. Luckily, the type of balut that Filipinos eat is not almost fully developed eggs where you can find feathers, bones, beaks etc. They usually eat Penoy balut where it is less developed but that does not mean it is less gross. 

So exactly 1 month to go! I got to start buying some gifts for his family (customary when meeting future-in-laws- lol), get mentally ready for Philippines and what it may bring!

   

Dying from Cuteness Overdose

She is already cute as she is and she is singing most of the lyrics of Someone like you by Adele. What topple her over the cuteness level was the expression she had when she sang along.

The level of cuteness too damn high!! 

   

Indulgence’s 2nd Anniversary at Avalon

We were invited to Indulgence’s 2nd Anniversary at AVALON over the weekend and being the clubbing noob that I am, I am rather excited because AVALON is the most high end club I have ever been to. 

The party starts at 9pm so Jhon, Fizah and I met up at 9pm at Marina Bay Sands. I know it was technically early because usually people arrive late so we ended up coming in at 10pm. 

Made a quick and probably squeaky call to Yan and met him near the entrance, welcoming people in. He looked smart and good but obviously tired. He is like Jhon; forever looking tired. =p 

(note there is no picture of Jhon because he looks super shagged)

Well, apparently 10pm was still very early because the dance floor was empty. Bwahaha Fortunately, we were the VIPs (thanks to Yan) so we managed to lounge with the small crowd at the Mezzanine Lounge. At 11pm+ the crowd slowly came into the VIP room so we decided to go out since we were not feeling the vibe of the music in there. 

[picture taken from http://followgram.me/indulgencesg]

We just hanged out outside, still at the 2nd storey and watch the crowds creep in while enjoying the music. I really love the place; I would say the best clubbing spot I ever went to albeit I have not been to many. Oh yeah, perfect view to spot and judge people. =P 

By 12am, the place was filling up fast and I was grooving to the music. With the 3 of us, it was a like a groove meter. To my left, Jhon was enjoying the music but wants to chill because he had an exhausting week. To my right, Fizah was eager to get to the dance floor. Me, I am neutral, I was moving to the beats but not really keen getting to the dance floor. Shy lah! 

We ended up staying till 1am+ because Jhon’s body could not take it anymore. Fizah well, I could see the disappointment on her face. Well, I did warn what could happen. I guess this always happens when you go out with one who prefers to chill and one prefers to dance the night away. You guys really put me in a spot HOKAY!? 

Besides that, I really enjoyed the atmosphere. A lot of people who likes to simply enjoy good music as opposed to getting drink, drank, drunk. It is because I had my experiences, where by 10pm, people are already tipsy. -_- 

Let me tell you a secret….

 I actually don’t mind going to AVALON again! FWAR! We just need to get past that funny look the bartenders/waiters give us when we ask for a non-alcoholic drink. Haha Pretend both of us are designated driver lah! lol

Anyways, congratulations Indulgence for their 2nd year and all the best in years to come! Wohoo!

   

John Butler Trio Live in Singapore

To tell you to the truth, I only knew about John Butler Trio last month. It was Jhon who introduced them to me.

He was also a new fan when he came across them months ago via YouTube. In fact, he didn’t even know that they will be performing in Singapore in conjunction of MOSIAC until we walked towards Esplanade for the Kumar’s Amazing Race show. When he saw the poster, he exclaimed in delight asking me to check the details and see if we could go.

The next day, I looked up John Butler on YouTube and the first song that I came across was this. I think his only instrumental song, Ocean.

My heart strings were strummed and it could be hard to believe but there’s something song that made me teary eyed in a good way. Not only that, they had other great songs too so no doubt, I am keen too.

The concert was on a weekday so we had to rush after work and had cupcorn for dinner.

YUMMY golden goodness.The concert hall was mostly filled with Australians who reside in Singapore and I would say they were quite a fun bunch although it took a while for them to warm up at first.

We got seats at Circle 2 which means it was at level 2 and it was a great view because it was an aerial view of the band. You can truly appreciate every band member especially the drummer. FUWAR!

That’s all I can say. =) John Butler Trio’s performance was fantastic! There were minor hiccups on the guitar which John would admit and went crazy self conscious about it by asking for our opinion.

The atmosphere was good too, up close and personal with people who just want to hear feel good music. He did play Ocean but it was a different rendition but it was still beautiful. Who would’ve thought a 12 string guitar would be so freaking awesome? Maybe I was just ignorant. Well, I am not now!

After the concert, there was a 30 minute autograph session and boy, there was a long queue. We didn’t join the queue but managed to sneak some pictures of the band.

Jhon and I thoroughly enjoyed the concert and it was worth every dollar.

Oh yeah, and since one of MOSIAC's sponsors was NTUC fairprice, guess what we got!?

A small bag with 4 packets of CAFE21 coffee and a notebook and with my charm, the auntie gave me 6 of them. haha Okaylah, I didn't use any charm at all, I jokingly told Jhon I want to steal bag filled with the packets and the auntie who heard me gave us 4 when we already had 2. sighs.. I know, I am so Singaporean.

   

Indulge to your Partying Desires

I am always on for any interesting activities or outings out here in Singapore. Most of them are usually morning or afternoon shindigs because I don’t have much of a night life.

But I would definitely make this an exception!

It’s to celebrate Indulgence’s 2nd Anniversary at Avalon.

What is Indulgence?

For 2 successful years, Indulgence is a promotion brand that has been promoting nothing but the best clubbing experience for all clubbers in Singapore. Some of their recent successful events would be 'Indulgence' at Kinki Rooftop Bar and John Digweed (UK) at Avalon.

Aren’t you feeling bad for missing out on such events?

For updates, general or corporate info, go to Indulgence’s FB Page.

Well, here are the 5 reasons why you should go to Indulgence’s party this Saturday.

1. If you RSVP and come in between 9pm to 12am, you get to enter for free!

2. People invite you to their big birthday bash; it’s YOUR obligation to come!
So if you read this, yup, you already committed. Too bad.

3. It’s at Avalon, the beautiful glass building at Marina Bay.
Note: Please make sure you enter the right building unless you want to buy an LV bag for Indulgence’s birthday gift. ;)

4. There will be fantastic DJs to get your party mood on.
Main Room: Effen (SG) - Patrick Oliver (US)
Mixing Room: DJ Sifi (UK) - Zig Zach (SG) - Artihc (SG)
Mezzanine Lounge: DJ Misty (SG) - DJ Funky T (SG) - MC Garuda (SG) - MC Rosh (SG)

5. Why are you still reading? You don’t need a reason to party or celebrate! You just do!

Click here to RSVP and bring all your friends and party, dance and celebrate with Indulgence and me *blink eyes* the night away!

   

“Double your Major, Double your Future!”

Studying has always been an important factor in our lives and one of the most important decisions we have to make as students is which profession we strive for and what degree would best fit? 

Generally, it is quite straight forward. 

If you want to be in marketing, you can choose Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing 

If you want to be an event planner of some sort, Bachelor of Arts in Tourism & Events would be ideal. 

But what if you just could not make up your mind? What if your parents want you to pursue Marketing but you want to be in Tourism? What if you want BOTH?

 Just deciding can such a stressful dilemma and this is where Murdoch at Kaplan comes to the rescue. 

Murdoch at Kaplan programmes now allows you to have more than one discipline with their double major degree programmes. Imagine entering the interviewing room with

  “Twice the Knowledge and Double your Edge”! 

Now, if you are thinking 

“Meh, I have no problem choosing my degree. I want to be an accountant so I’ll just choose an accountant degree” 

True but any graduate may have an accountant degree but who else can have a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Economics (Double Major)? It could be YOU! Have the upper hand by having that extra knowledge in the bag. 

There are many kinds of programme you can choose from like Bachelor of Communication in Communication & Media Studies and Marketing where both degrees complement each other. For example, being in a media industry and you have to market a commercial or be a marketer and you have the communication skills to promote and sell your product. 

Not only that, imagine all the time saved going for such programmes? 

(Enough of wordy words, time for picture diagrams!) 

 Not only that, the other degree can also fall as a backup plan for another profession. 

Now you can advance your life goals with Murdoch’s Double Major Degree and Masters programmes offered at Kaplan Higher Education on a full time and part time basis. 

Click here to find out how!

   

Winning a Toy for him like a boss

Jhon and I went to Parkway Parade for fun since it's been a while since we went there.

We ate at our favorite mama stall at the nearby coffee shop and headed to the mall.

We printed some photos for our scrapbook (yes! we have another project in hand) and roamed around the mall. One place that we will NEVER miss out is the arcade!

We were lucky because they had a March holiday promotion where if you top up $20 or $50, you will get double. No prizes to those who can guess how much we topped up. Don't worry, we didn't spend every thing in one day.

We ended our arcade fun with Big Sweet Land.

I am not a big fan of the game because I used to be somewhat addicted to this game. I had my bags of sweets and several jackpot prizes but I didn't like how much money it took from me in the long run.

But Jhon saw something he liked hanging in the machine and with a puppy eyed dog look and a slight pout, he managed to coax me to play. I was the better player than him but that does not mean I would be easy.

We had a few sweets in our pocket and in 5 minutes, I was lucky enough to get the Jackpot prize! Imagine the looks of the other addicted aunties and uncles gave us.

I tried my best to be humble but deep inside, I was like...

So Jhon got the toy that he wanted!! What was it?

It was a Mickey Mouse doll. hahaha

He was a happy camper and I find it weird. Shouldn't be it be the guy who gets the girl a toy at the arcade or funfair? hehe But I don't mind. I like that we tend to occasional switch roles in a relationship. I am sure every guy likes to be romanced once in a while.

    

   

Weekend Getaway to Desaru – Day 2

Click here if you missed Day 1.

We had a wonderful sleep except for Jhon because well, he never can fully sleep when it’s not his home. I think he is a watch dog in his previous life; always on guard.

We had the day all to ourselves so we took our time and headed for breakfast. The spread was okay though I was upset there was no omelette. How can a breakfast buffet not have omelette?! They only have boiled eggs. Hmph.

With filled tummies, we headed to the beach. As we approached the coastline, we could hear the thunderous waves and when we reached it, I went FWAR!!! The waves looked scary! It was not exactly a picture perfect coast line because the waters were ‘teh tarik’ brown but the waves did made up for it.

See the picture on the bottom? I was jumping over the waves (something I always do with waves) and didn’t realize Jhon was waiting patiently for me to jump and capture it.

The breeze was great but the sun was yet again merciless. We got an immediate tan although we had loads of lotion and were under a shade. In addition of enjoying the breeze, my mom, being her motherly self, was stressed because parents would let their toddlers and young children play at the coastline without supervision. Even adults fall down as the waves crashed into them, how about kids?

I told her, don’t be so stressed. We are here to relax and relax she did. We enjoyed the scenery in silence for a while and suddenly she kept ordering me to pose at the tree. Hahaha

I walked around the area for a while and found a tree stump. What did I do with it? Click here for the story.

After the beach, we went to the pool near our room and soaked to cool down. And you know how we can NEVER sit at a pool without having the NEED to jump in.

At that time, it was 2 hours to 12pm which was supposedly check-out time. But mom didn’t want to soak for just 20-30 minutes. So I checked at the counter for the rates for extended stay and it turned out we have till 2pm before they charge us!

Mom was obviously ecstatic and we enjoyed the pool. My mom was so naughty. She kept splashing us, mostly on Jhon. haaha

After tanning for the 2nd time, we headed back to our room and had lunch before checking out. We had about 1 hour more before the bus arrives so I went to the front where there were parrots!

Journey home was a little irritating but there is a HUGE possibility the reason I was agitated was because I had my period. Yes. Right on the dot (pun not intended), after the swim at the pool.

We arrived Singapore at about 5pm and took a cab home. We were tired but satisfied and I teased my mom saying that it was the first time we went to Malaysia and not go for a shopping spree. Haha my mom is a shopping freak.

All I can say that we are happy and on that same night, mom was asking me to plan another trip, perhaps to Langkawi. Here we go again….

   

Movie Review: The Lorax

The Lorax, another adaptation of Dr. Seuss's tales turned into a movie.

Just in cause you don't know what is the movie all about, here is a synopsis and trailer.

From the creators of Despicable Me and the imagination of Dr. Seuss comes the 3D-CG feature The Lorax, an adaptation of the classic tale of a forest creature who shares the enduring power of hope.  The animated adventure follows the journey of a 12-year-old as he searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams.  To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world.  

The movie pretty much has everything it represents in the story.

The lesson learnt in saving the trees and mother nature.

Cute little animals.

And of course wacky and quirky character and scenes.

There is also a 3D version of the movie which Jhon and I were lucky to experience and would I recommend 3D for The Lorax? Hell YES!

As long as it's an animation movie, you can bet your movie experience will be increased tenfold in 3D. I love it that there are several parts of the scene (mostly chasing scene) where it seems that we are in a thrill ride.

We thoroughly enjoyed the movie and so will every one of every age group.

Oh yeah, throughout the movie, I found out I have a Thneed made from Truffula Tree's tufts all this while! hehe

Catch The Lorax in 3D on 8 March 2012!

Weekend Getaway to Desaru – Day 1

I thought I could squeeze a weekend getaway into 1 blog post and boy I was wrong. It was probably because there were so many pictures taken or it’s simply because our getaway was packed with fun and interesting activities! I would like to think it is the latter. =)

The morning started a little bumpy with a little confusion and the fact that we were stuck with a family with 3 NOISY little boys with parents who don’t know how to discipline. It was ironic because this trip was meant to be a treat for my mom who has been taking care of her 3 grandchildren who were also all boys. The big difference was that at least her grandchildren were much disciplined. I told her and Jhon not to let them ruin our break. It didn’t work very well though; my mom developed a mild headache.

Our first pit stop was the Crocodile Farm. Exciting, CAN? I love Crocodiles and Alligators! What was great is that the farm is an open enclosure so you can get real close to the crocs. So much so that if you stretch your arms out, a crocodile might jump and grab a bite! The ‘Pak cik’ there was wonderful. He kept calling me to stand by his side to get up close and personal with the crocs. Not only that, he kept calling for Jhon to take photos at strategic spots while he taunted the crocs.

At the end of the tour, I took a picture with a LIVE baby Croc. It was exciting but scary because the baby croc was slowly turning towards me as pictures were taken!

Next stop was the Desaru Fruit Farm + Mini Zoo + Bee Talk.

My mom was really looking forward for the fruit farm. But despite being fascinated with the abundance of fruits, it was a letdown for her because she wants to pick them. I had to constantly remind her that this is not THAT kind of farm and perhaps one day, I will bring her to one. Along with the disappointment, the afternoon sun was mean so she got tired half way through.

We managed to replenish ours energy with fresh pomegranate and soursop juice from the farm (which was AMAZINGLY delicious!) and moved along to the Mini Zoo and Bee Talk which is within the same compound.

The mini zoo, well, was mini but filled with all kinds of animals like goats, monkeys, rabbits, turtles, geese and also ostriches. Actually, there was only 1 ostrich and yes, if you look closely in the pictures, we saw a of pair geese getting their ♫chikka-pow-wow….♪ Hahaha

After that ermm… interesting scene, we were guided for lunch buffet. The food was pretty good and our stomachs were quite satisfied. Though I don’t understand why there was this butch keep getting rounds and rounds of servings of the 2 least delicious dishes. To each his own, I suppose.

After lunch, we went for the bee talk. When there are fruits, there are flowers therefore there are bees right? We were not interested in this because we had this bee talk when we went to Bangkok 2 years ago. So it was all “meh” to us.

By 2pm, it was the end of our tour and we were brought to Desaru Lotus Resort. The place was nice and rather relaxing but the room that we got, OH MY! It was 90% similar to how Jhon and I imagined our dream home to be! So you can tell we were happy.

One thing for sure, throughout the stay, I know for sure if I ever get to live in such a home, I will lose a lot of weight. Mainly because I always forget something while I am downstairs/upstairs so I always end up climbing up and down the stairs.

Jhon and I went to the ‘Water theme park’ which is to us, just a water playground and swam around at the pool while mom takes a nap from the tiring day. Oh yeah! Icing on the cake? Our room was just next to a pool!

When we came back, we ordered an early dinner and got ready for a tour outside of our main itinerary, Fire fly tour! It was funny because mom and I were just talking about it this morning and we ended up going for it that same night.

There were no photos for that tour because it was too dark and we were moving but it was BEAUTIFUL. It was scary at first because we had to take a boat ride into a pitch black swamp but when the fire flies came out, everything was forgotten. They reminded me of fairies floating in the darkness, simply remarkable.

After the tour, we went back to the resort and had small supper, relaxed and went to bed. I initially wanted to check out the funfair within the resort but after supper, putting my legs up on the sofa, I could feel the tiredness. It does not matter anyways. From Fizah’s previous trip, I know there were evil and creepy looking clowns lurking there. D=

[taken from her photo album]

Click here for Day 2!