A week in a blink;

Another week has gone by, and it’s scarier knowing that another seven days are taken off my countdown chart to the first paper for this term. Three papers to take, and one ECA to complete; I just can’t wait for June to arrive! Not to mention how stupid the topic is for the ECA – a three to five minute video on end-of-life care in Singapore. And the lecturer had actually suggested us to interview her mom, who’s struck with a terminal illness. Gees, seriously?!

SATURDAY
That aside, I am glad that I managed to squeeze in some leisure time amidst the crazy weekend of mugging, doing up the outline for the ECA, and planning the study schedule. My aunt from Malaysia is in town to visit us and will be heading back to KL tomorrow, so Mommy and I brought her out on Saturday to have dinner together simple food-fare at Jurong Point’s Kopitiam.

SUNDAY
I headed out to capture some shots for my assignment. First stop was Bras Basah, and we jumped onto the opportunity to tour around National Museum of Singapore since full-time students and regulars get to enjoy free entry/S$5 (special rate) for admission fees.

BOOMZ clouds taken outside the museum;

A couple of exhibitions and galleries were opened when we visited, and I found the photography gallery particularly interesting. Perhaps ‘cos it showcased the history of Singapore from various perspectives of the key people, such as Sir Stamford Raffles and the performers from Great World Amusement Park. A pity I left my SD card at home so, I could only make do with my iPhone to snap some photos from the museum tour. That, I shall leave it to next entry.

Another place that we went to, Tiong Bahru Market; this place serves really delish hawker fare. Ordered Hainanese Chicken Rice, Chwee Kueh, Beef Soup, Oyster Omelette, and Sugar Cane drink to top it off. My fave dish has got to be the Chwee Kueh  from Jian Bo Tiong Bahru Chwee Kueh (#02-05)!

Tiong Bahru Food Market & Hawker Centre
(Check out ladyironchef’s post for more food recommendations!)
Address: 30 Seng Poh road
All these for less than S$15, daebak!

MONDAY
After a somewhat long Monday, the whole family brought my aunt out for dinner with some hawker foodfare lovin’. Our initial stop was Redhill Market & Food Centre, but too bad the tzi char store wasn’t opened for business so we decided on heading to Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre instead.

We ordered BBQ Sambal Stingray, Sotong, Kang Kang from BBQ Seafood, and Winter Melon with Spare Ribs soup from Yi Ping Tung. The latter serves really good soup, and the unique way of cooking it charcoal-style allows all the ingredients to be well-broiled. Best of all, the price is reasonable at S$4 per claypot. Yay!

BBQ Seafood
(Check out InSing’s post for more information)
Address: Yung Sheng Road, #03-178, Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre

Yi Ping Tung Charcoal Claypot Soup
(Check out InSing’s post for more information)
Address: Yung Sheng Road, #03-157, Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre

After the dinner, we brought her to Marina Bay Sands to take in the night-view of Singapore.

Chanced upon the window display of Louis Vuitton, and snapped a photo of it – amazed by the vibrant colours. But I thought the colours used for window display were a big contrast to the pastel colours used in their SS12 campaign.

LABOUR DAY
The journey went like this – Jurong Point, Jurong East, JCube, Redhill, IKEA, Changi, and Old Airport Road Food Centre. And I finally got to try the Lao Ban Soya Beancurd!! Bought a few back for mommy and sister, and they love it too. Mommy said that there’s a tinge of black sugar taste in it. The queue wasn’t that bad when I went at 8+pm, less than 30 minutes I’d say. At S$1.50 per bowl, it’s much pricier than the usual soya beancurd in the market but I think it’s worth the price. HAHA!

Lao Ban Soya Beancurd (Old Airport Road)
Address: 51 Old Airport Road, #01-127 Old Airport Road Food Centre

Wednesday
Alas! Mid-week was finally here, and it’s another day with bad headache etc. Went to the temple to pray that evening, and had a good talk with my god-uncle. Let’s just see how things go!

Simple foodfare // home-cooked food is love! Mommy never fails to let us come home in comfort and bask in love from her. LOL, so much for cheesy lines, but I really learnt not to take such details for granted after working. It’s not like I get to eat home-cooked food everyday

OTD // Crochet top with TheTinselRack Floral Blossoms Paperbag Skirt in Violet Peonies, and my trusty Longchamp bag

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Sooooo many movies that I wanna catch, but I think gotta wait till my assignment and exams are over – the highly raved Avengers and Battleship. Boos*

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Review on “The Lucky One” movie

Details:
Movie title: “The Lucky One“
1hr 41min – Romance, Drama
Director: Scott Hicks
Writers: Will Fetters (screenplay), Nicholas Sparks (novel)
Stars: Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling and Blythe Danner

Synopsis (credits here):
A Marine travels to Louisiana after serving three tours in Iraq and searches for the unknown woman he believes was his good luck charm during the war.

Perhaps I held too high hopes for this movie, so I was tad disappointed after watching it. Other than the scenes with the hot bod of Zac Efron, the rest of the story plot lacklustre and predictable. I felt the emotions shown during the scene where Taylor reminisced about her brother was more real than the chemistry between her and Zac. Nonetheless, it’s a nice movie to catch if you don’t want to fight with the crowd this weekend over tickets to the Avengers movie.

Rating:

.5 out of 5 popcorns

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QOTD// daily mantra; thanks for the love received.

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This is like, one of my longest posts ever; blogged this over the week and finally managed to publish it today. Gotta find time this weekend to do a good run and finish the rest of my mugging and video assignment \m/ FIGHTING!

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TGIF peeps! Looking forward to tonight

xoxo, Noi

Home-cooked food at its best;

They always have this saying, “Nothing beats home-cooked food“. I can totally relate to this statement even home-cooked (Curry) Maggie Mee does wonders at times! And to add on, I think I’m one of the lucky few whose mother is a stay-at-home housewife, forever thankful for that. Mommy often laments that her ‘job’ is one of the toughest in this world, ‘cos 1) she has no off day, 2) she’s not paid (other than the monthly allowances from us, LOL!), 3) she has to take care of three big babies – daddy, sister, and myself. How I wish I could whip up better dishes for her to eat, but she always brushes the idea off -___- for fear of her own safety, or rather her stomach’s safety. LOL!

It may be the simplest food fare, nothing fancy like gastronomy arts. Nonetheless, coming home to warmed-up soup or home-cooked dishes is one of my favourite things in this world :’) Thank you mommy!

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Thanks to bratty sister who recently acquired steel teeth mommy’s been cooking // Sweet Potato Porridge //.
It’s yummy yet fuss-free!

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Lotus Root Soup // Udon with homemade broth // Kimchi to pair with our udon

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Braised pork // Stir fry cauliflower // Assortment of Yong Tau Foo

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Stir fry roasted pork with garlic bits // Egg soup // Stir fry beans

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Simple stir fry egg // Crispy luncheon meat // stir fry cai xim

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Simple photo-log of home-cooked food by mommy dearest, it also serves as a reminder that I should be thankful and more than contented to see mommy’s health recovering. This brings me to an article that I would like to share; I took this off Facebook, it’s an article by Maryam Mokhtar (from Sunday Times, Think Section, Page 45), “Freedom can wait, I’m staying put for Dad”. One liner that struck the chord in my heart-strings is – ‘…with freedom comes a duty I owe my old man who gave up his own freedom decades ago to raise three daughters”, mommy gave up her youth, her passion as a seamstress to stay at home and look after us since we stepped into this world.

(Click on image to view text)

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Stan’s words,
“Never ever take it for granted that our loved ones will stay by our side for as long as we want to, it’s ironic that we only notice of their missing presence then we’ll realise how much we’ve neglected them.”

Time to let the emo thoughts come to a halt, back to essay writing.

xoxo, Noi

Precious time spent with family and shopping loots review;

Took the day off as my parents had suggested to go Tomb Sweeping today with my eldest uncle; it’s like a yearly tradition that we never fail to stand by. My late  Grandpa was buried, hence we had to travel to the cemetery at Lim Chu Kang area, and then made our way to Choa Chu Kang Crematorium to pay our respects to my late Grandma and my late second uncle. Throughout the journey, my dad kept harping to me on the different practices and traditions that we Chinese Taoists have to adhere to. He added that it’s a pity that not many of us in this generation still know about the traditions of Tomb Sweeping, such as the prayer items to purchase and the various things to note. Long story short, the whole process did involved a lot of things, but I think it’s still of utmost importance to cherish your loves ones while they are still around you. <3

Headed to Bugis with my parents in the afternoon, and we went to Kuan Yin Thong Hood Cho Temple first before heading to Albert Food Centre for some tea-break. Dad bought us green bean soup from this stall with a long long queue; the soup is nice, but my dad complained that the previous stall owners were better. And I can never forget to order my favourite Chwee Kueh whenever I spotted the stall in food markets!

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Did some shopping at Bugis Street, and I walked away with four tops at only S$10 each. Two of the tops were spotted on blogstores before, if I’d remembered correctly. LOL, my sis also got a cardigan at S$15 from Bugis Street last week, and I saw it selling online for S$26.90. Zzzz.

Sister joined us for dinner after she knocked off from work, and dad drove us to Redhill Market and Food Centre! Ordered my fave Fried Wing Rice, and parents had their usual Curry Rice from Hong Seng Curry Rice. It’s super yummy and really affordable – three side dishes with rice costs S$2.70. Compared to the Scissors Cut Curry Rice that you see in foodcourts which sells overpriced food, this gem at Redhill Market and Food Centre is one not to be missed.

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SHOPPING LOOTS REVIEW

Herwalkincloset Karen Millen Inspired Pleated Work Dress in POP-ART BLUE
Couldn’t resist getting this piece from herwalkincloset when I first set my eye on it, and since it’s a sales item so I thought why not? Thanks to dear Eilsbaby (owner of HWC) for advising on the colour of the dress that I should take ‘cos I was contemplating on the black or pop-art blue piece, I chose the latter in the end. I picked Size M, and it fits nicely on me. The shade of blue is not too loud, more towards cobalt blue in my opinion. Great for corporate functions, and meeting days!

Herwalkincloset Mod Block Top
My favourite colour – coral! The material is definitely of boutique standard, and I picked Size M for this as well. It comes with a back zip for ease of wearing, and it doesn’t feel snug on me at all. Paired it with Snowflake necklace from MYnt Shoppe :) Happy loots from HWC!

Megagamie Gipsy Boho Blouse in Purple
Tried on this newly launched Megagamie top while I was at KissJane (Bugis outlet) yesterday, and I fell in love with it. Debated between purple and midnight blue, and mommy even suggested getting this direct from KJ but I told her that I’ll try to camp for the launch instead. The material is very comfortable, and the intricate details are worth the price tag of S$26.50 mailed! It’s free-sized, and it’s slightly oversized on me.

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 Things my sister do on a daily basis to keep my workday going, thank you Bratty Sister xoxo

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Rounding off this post, here’s an OTD from Sunday – TheDesignCloset Kimono Top in Navy x Nine West Satchel x usual accessories. Albeit a lazy Sunday, it’s awesome to just do nothing and usher in Monday altogether again.

Meh. -____-

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SS4 Paris in two days’ time, and three days to Siwon Oppa’s birthday! /fangirl scream/

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Back to assignment deadlines again, and lack of social life.
Push on, push on!

xoxo, Noi.

Fun at Genki Sushi;

One random afternoon, we decided to pop by town area to walk around and settled a late lunch at Plaza Singapura Kopitiam. I had actually planned to bring Stan to Genki Sushi for dinner, after reading/hearing all the rave reviews from friends! But since we had nothing much to do (or shop), we reckoned that we would take an early dinner (despite that earlier lunch) first. And also, reservation is not allowed so we decided to avoid the dinner crowd.

We reached Genki Sushi at about 5pm on a Saturday, and there were only two other occupied tables. Very clean and nice place imho, and tucked in a quiet corner of Orchard Central. It’s our first time dining here, so my hands naturally went trigger-happy with my iPhone 4 camera.

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The menus are placed by the side of the conveyor belt next to you, and the iPad (used to order your food) is placed above the conveyor belt.

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My first time making my own matcha in this manner;

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Ordering our food using the iPad #likeaboss;

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Look at the cute way of delivering our orders to us; there are two vehicles – one Ferrari and the other is a bullet train!

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NOM NOM – all the dishes that we’ve ordered; Kakiage, Jellyfish, Salmon Sashimi, and lots of sushi!

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The bill came up to about S$20+, which I thought it was pretty worth it for a Japanese restaurant in Orchard Central. Food wise, we think Sushi Tei serves better Japanese food (in terms of the Jellyfish and sushi) but the Salmon Sashimi was pretty decent too.

Genki Sushi
Website: http://www.genkisushi.com.sg (under construction)
Address: 181 Orchard Road, #03-32 Orchard Central
Tel: +65 6238 0900

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Time for more gourmet delights this evening with girlfriends!
xoxo, Noi

My Saturdate;

In a slow turn of time, it’s finally Thursday. No doubt the shitty day, I’m sure it’s gonna be a great night ‘cos sisters and I are meeting up for dinner! What’s more, we are gonna celebrate da-jie’s (belated) birthday Most probably gonna dine at any good restaurant that we can find at Millenia Walk. Yay! Miss these girls loads, our last meet-up was for Christmas and I remember that was the first time we’d met Baby Clarisse. XOXO

Gonna be a short pictorial post, and review on Love, Bonito (LB) Dakota Blouse in Navy and Grey Clutch from Ascentee.

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Darling babysis dropped by my office last Thursday to pass me these lovely chiffon cakes, ‘cos she said she’s gonna miss when she flies to Malaysia with Mommy to visit Grandma. Sweet daooooo was really happy to see her, and not to mention…savouring these cakes during my lesson later that night. Tried to ask her for the address of this bakery, but all she could remember is, this is near her workplace at Robinsons Road. Goldfish memory = her. -___-

Cranberry, Chocolate, Marble, and Vanilla

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Quite sad to hear of the old folks being admitted into hospitals and/or falling ill out of the sudden, after hearing the news of my grandparents, Stan’s Grandma was also hospitalised for sudden vomitting and breathing difficulty. So glad that she’s out of the hospital now. Anyhoots, we had dinner at DTF and desserts at Secret Recipe! One can never get sick of XLBs, still prefer theirs over Crystal Jade’s anytime. And also, the Raspberry Marble Cheesecake that I’d ordered was simply divine. A tad too pity that the price is almost the same as Malaysia’s outlets, except with the change of currency sign only. Bummer!

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NOTD/ Nail Diary

My sis got into this hype over nail polishes, and bought a few bottles of loud (bright) hues for herself from The Face Shop. I did a little more work for my nails over the weekend, applied this purplish glitter shade from TFS and added another coat of glitter shade from LA Colour. Happy!

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OTD/ Outfit Diary; Love, Bonito (LB) Dakota Blouse in Navy and Grey Clutch from Ascentee

*myntshop Snowflake necklace as shown in photo

Managed to snag this piece via restocks collection! Was contemplating on white or navy, but slow fingers me was left with the Navy option in the end. Nothing to grumble about this versatile piece as it works great as a layering top for any outfit. I’d paired it up with a long singlet from Cotton On, and a black mini skirt from MNG. The clutch is my favourite till date, it comes with a chain sling but I prefer to use it this way. Any recommendations on where to get similar clutches like this? Thanks a million!

For ref, UK10/ 168cm.

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Stay tuned for MYnt’s launch tonight: http://mynt-shop.livejournal.com/ :)
Here’s a sneak preview!
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p.s. I’ve started my running regime again recently, and I definitely wanna say that I love running the aftermath of exercising feels awesome. Yay x2!

xoxo,
Noi

TGIF date with mommy and sister;

- Photos taken with iPhone 4 camera, and edited using Adobe Photoshop CSS Extended -

17th Feb 2012; impromptu date with mommy and sister to have our dinner together at Jurong Point! Ever since my sister quit her job at P, she has been looking so much happier and care-free. No doubt the income factor is an issue for concern, but I reckon this break will do her good Anyways, back to the dinner date, we had our meal at Kopitiam (btw, go try out the soup stall – it offers delish Double Boiled Soup at decent prices), and were deciding to have desserts at Swensen’s for some ice-cream lovin’ and yummy french fries. Sadly, the queue was a little too long and we gave up waiting. Sis suddenly recalled that her Starbucks card hasn’t been utitlised yet, so we settled on Starbucks for our dessert place!

All Mocha – two frappe and one hot drink x girly chats x some portrait-shots x laughters x mother-sister bonding time; so thankful that these two ladies are heading home this evening! Been missing them for the past few days ‘cos they had gone to Malaysia to visit my grandparents. The house was so quiet, and I was alone most of the time as my dad is on shift-work for this period. Good news that my grandma is recovering much better with the help of acupunture and TCM

See you ladies in an hour’s time! Toodles

p.s. @myntshop (http://mynt-shop.livejournal.com) will be launching this week!
p.p.s. finally went back to my running regime, feels good to get the injury out of the way for some jogging around the estate <3

xoxo,
Noi

Sweet things in life;

Albeit the busy days at work lately, I’m thankful for the sweet things in life that I have received from the people around me! Met up with Shermaine after work last Saturday, and she passed me lots of goodies! Really sweet of her to accommodate to my erratic work schedule – thumbs up!

The ‘goodie bag’ included a lovely CNY greeting card that contained heartfelt words which I really appreciate, thanks babe. And the edible goodies, Choc Chip Cookie and Honey Coated Corn flakes, are simply delish. Perhaps my family isn’t accustomed to sweet stuff, so the latter was a little too sweet for them but they sang praises for the choc chip cookies! Yay ;D hopefully Shermaine can realise her dream of opening a bakery one day, ‘cos her masterpieces are that awesome. Jiayou babe!

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Mommy has been really patient with me, despite my constant rants as soon as I set foot home, and she even whipped up comfort food for me.. knowing that I can’t really take heaty stuff. XOXO please. Can’t wait for this busy period to be over, so that we can go CNY shopping together. It’s scary to know how time flies at times! Counting down to CNY – less than two more weeks to go.

Having said that, I haven’t run a single bit since the start of this year! Either the weather or lethargic self after work is hindering me from putting on my running gear and heading down for a jog, but I’m glad stay-at-home exercises are helping me in some ways. Feels good to perspire the stress out! No thanks to Stan too, who’s been psycho-ing me to get a treadmill ‘cos he’s lost like 1 to 2kg a week ever since his daily run on his newly acquired (exorbitant price tag) treadmill at home. KNS and guilt-trip max.

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The first fire flare for year 2012;
please grant us the wishes we made in silence.

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xoxo, Noi.

Instagram, foodlogue, and what’s not.

Happy food, I’m lovin’ it by McDonald’s.

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Beautiful; Happy 2012 by Tiffany & Co.

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Minestrone Soup, MOS Burger.

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Curry Chicken and Veggies, Jurong Point Kopitiam.

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Cherry tomotoes and guavea, fruit palatte by mommykin.

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Happy Twenty-Twelve, daily planner by Nightingale.

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Happy birthday to me, Whatever balloon from the girls.

Thanks sweets

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I miss running, I miss having me-time.
Faith and strength much needed for this week;

xoxo,
Noi

Girlfriends that stick together through thick and thin;

You know in life, there’s this cliche phrase that goes – when someone who’s once a stranger, becomes your best friend the next moment. I’m thankful that I had managed to foster great friendships with people whom I’ve met in school, at work, and even through online platforms!

I got to know these two ladies – Charmaine and Stephanie, from my first job. And since then, we hit it off right away and till date =) I’m still counting my blessings for these two girlfriends of mine. We’ve seen each other through the ups and downs, and I am so glad we make time for one another despite being caught up with work and family commitments.

(This is a really backdated post, by the way!) Dinner was at Madam Saigon (Millenia Walk) ‘cos we wanted to meet somewhere centralised, and we were craving for ‘healthy food’. Ordered Chicken Spring Roll to share and Beef Noodles for our mains, and we all agreed that the food was awesome for the prices!

- Chicken Spring Roll -
Resembles our local spring roll, but this one has more vegetables and the skin used to wrap the ingredients is different too!

- Beef Noodles -

Madam Saigon (Millenia Walk)
Address: 9 Raffles Boulevard, #01-26 Millenia Walk, Singapore
Tel: +65 6338 3831
Opening Hours
Daily: 11.30am – 10pm
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Looking forward to meeting these ladies, once Charmaine comes back from her US trip! Yayness <3 

xoxo,
Noi

A Celebratory Dinner;

So on Wednesday, the phone call came. Mommy hesitated to pick up the call and asked my dad to pick it up. She was right, the call was indeed from the gynae clinic. It’s good news! =) Thank you all for the prayers! Superbly elated when dad conveyed this piece of awesome news to us over the phone (my sis and I were at work, then)! So that night, we all went out to have a good meal together. Not necessarily in the form of luxurious food, but a simple meal at Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre would suffice.

Mommy still has to watch her diet, so she ordered porridge =) sister and I followed suit. It’s our first time trying this famous Soon Lee Porridge, and we finally can understand the reason behind its popularity. For S$2.50 (Pork/ Chicken) and S$2.80 (Fish) each bowl, it’s really worth the amount spent. Generous serving on the you tiao, ingredients, and garnish, I’d say the 20 – 30 minutes is totally worth the wait. Go go go try it!

Soon Lee Porridge
Blk 448 Clementi Ave 3, #01-50 Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre

Dad ordered his usuals – Pork Cutlet from Tanglin Halt Westen Food, and 15 sticks of satay (Pork) from Chai Ho Satay to share. The queue wasn’t too long this time, but they had ran out of ketupat rice when I ordered. And as always, their satay never fail to impress ;D

 Chai Ho Satay
Blk 448 Clementi Ave 3, #01-21 Clementi 448 Market & Food Centre

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The past few days (prior to receiving the results from the report) have been tough on the family, especially for our parents. Mommy, being the emotional one, had a hard time sleeping and we were so worried for her. So glad that it’s all clear now. This ordeal kind of tightened the bond within the family =’) something which I’m really thankful for. Bless everyone with good health please, it beats being wealthy. Trust me. ♥♥♥
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Shopping Review ♥ SMooch Paperbag Waisted Skirt in Grey (Size M)

 Joined the backorder for this piece, and received it on Monday! Imma happy kid please, ‘cos this skirt is gorgeous. I usually steer clear of paperbag bottom designs because I have wide hips. However, this fits my frame nicely and it ends just right above my knees. The colour is very sweet and feminine too =) material wise, the chiffon doesn’t seem filmsy but I think ironing is advisable to iron out the creases. This is gonna be a staple in my wardrobe now!  ♥ (Ref: UK Size 10/ 169cm)

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Read from Facebook of a schoolmate’s passing due to a horrific car crash yesterday… Her elder sister is of the same age as me. Sighs, the fragility of life.

xx, Noi.