Treasure Life;

It’s been a mad rush of late, not just myself but everyone at work. A major event is coming up in two weeks’ time, and no thanks to ‘last minute-ness’… everything has to be done and ready by early December! BUT with awesome colleagues and the amazing close-knitted bond that we share, things are going rather smoothly (crossing my fingers) #Thankful for them who add colours into my work-life (and after-work life) everyday! <3

Taking a short break from studying to run some errands and a quick update!

Major obsession with knit wear lately, partly ‘cos of the cold weather (rainy season in Singapore is here again!) and the much comfy level of these outfits. LOVES!

Top & Knit Skater Skirt: Uniqlo
Bag: agnes b.

Top & Bag: Bugis Street
Shorts: Mango
Watch: Casio

Top: Random market store
Inner piece: H&M (highly recommended to buy item at S$7.90 only!)
Jeans: F21
Bag: agnes b.

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The past few weeks haven’t been the best and this period has kinda made me grasp the meaning of “相愛容易相處難“.

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Exam period calls for a hiatus period at home, which automatically translates to a lot of eating and binging on junk food to keep the stress at bay! A lot of songs loaded into the classic iPod too, my main companion with the study notes.

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Insatiable love for coffee, and breakfast with mommy on weekends! <3

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If you’re following me on Instagram, you’ve read that one of my mom’s friend’s dad has left without a word. It’s heart-breaking to hear that it was supposed to be his first overseas trip, together with his children… He didn’t even manage to set foot in Taiwan, and passed away in his sleep on the aeroplane. His family only realised it when their plane touched down. :’( Even thinking about it gives me the shiver feeling. Too sudden, too scary… Cliché statement always has its magic and meaning to it – “Life is too short, treasure every single one and thing around you.”

If you haven’t made time for someone that you really care, do it now. Take time off work to spend time with yourself, with your loved ones… Work can wait, for you never know when’s the last time that you’ll get to talk or see them again. Guilty as charged, I think I need to work on this.

*photo taken with my iPhone – that’s my beloved grand-dad’s vintage Citizen watch that the children bought for him and my late grand-ma for their 50th anniversary. Such Love and faithfulness amaze me… I miss you grand-ma <3 ..  好想再回到那些年的時光.

XOXO, Noi

Thank you, Railay (Krabi);

Railay, Krabi has left a huge footprint in my trek of memories/travelogue journey… I’ll post a more detailed entry once Stan passes me the photos from his camera. Good thing that he’d purchased the underwater camera casing (though I’m still feeling the heart-pain from the hefty price tag), ‘cos we’d brought the camera along with us on our Four Islands tour to capture the beautiful landscape shots! Anyways, I’m missing this beautiful place so so much. It’s touched us all in more ways than one – the mesmerizing views that Nature has blessed us with, the dangerous encounters that we’ve braved through, and the sumptuous spread of Thai food for every meal!

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Here’s a compilation of the photographs that I’ve posted to Instagram (link), for your easy viewing. A teaser to the detailed entry I’d say, heh.

On flight Tiger Airways

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Railay Beach Resort and Spa
What we woke up to, every morning… This resort is beyond gorgeous, and not to mention very hygienic too!

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Railay West; our hotel front.

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Railay East; where we alighted (the private boat charter service ferried us from Ao Nang to Railay)

Sunrise

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Phranang Cave and Beach; famous among rock climbers for its mesmerizing limestone.

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Railay West sunset

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Missing the authentic and reasonably-priced Thai food already…

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Heading home (Singapore)…

*all photographs were taken with my iPhone4 (no HDR option) and filtered with PowerCam or Instagram
 

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Thank you, Railay…
And, thankful for the best travel mates that I’ve been blessed.. You guys rocked this trip!

XOXO, Noi

Lucky, Lucky;

Quite sometime back, Stan received a piece of great news and he immediately rang me up but I wasn’t able to pick up his call then. Returned his call, and his voice was so jumpy that I thought something bad had happened -___- boys…

Turned out that it’s the news that he has been waiting for, and anticipated all along, but he’d never thought it would arrive so soon! It’s something to do with his work, and I shall not say too much due to the nature of his job. But I really wanna say that I am so proud of him :*) and hopefully, he can prove to his superiors that he’s worthy of this new appointment, which I am sure he will!

Met up with him at Jurong Point to hear more of it, and we settled for desserts at a newly opened (Chinese) dessert store in JP2, it’s called Lucky Dessert! Reminds me of Ji De Chi, which is also located in JP2, but the menu items are pricier.

Stan ordered this Mango and Grass Jelly item, and mine was a mixture of Mango paste w/fruits and Grass Jelly! I think food wise, it’s nicer than Ji De Chi, but the bill of S$12++ wasn’t really worth it in my opinion. Still, it’s worth a try!

Address
Lucky Dessert @ Jurong Point
1 Jurong West Central 2, #03-54 Jurong Point Shopping Centre
Tel: 9090 1723
Facebook Page: Link here

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Rare guest appearance*
The boy who couldn’t stop smiling for the whole week -_______-

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And in less than two days’ time, Stan, Daph, Phee and I will be indulging in the mesmerizing view of Krabi. Too bad the rest of the peeps couldn’t join, but we believe there’s always a next time! Thanks Chiat for sharing the link on the things to do/places to go in Krabi – it’s a post by LifestyleAsia.com.

Kudos to Stan for helping to coordinate the trip; checking with travel agencies on availability of packages, hotel booking, air ticket booking, planning of activities, and even down to arranging the airport transfer for us! Haha, /applause please/ ;D

Credits: http://www.phuketthailandtrip.com

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View from Railay Bay Hotel

Credits: http://www.hotelthailand.com

 Credits: http://www.lantainfo.com

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Happy mid-week y’all! : )
XOXO, Noi

Dinner date at Itacho Sushi;

Impromptu dinner meet-up with my dear 38 besties two Fridays back, after the end of my exam week one. Remembered how my mother persuaded me to take the night off and mug later, heh! Via the whatsapp chatroom, Jass and I arranged to meet at Buona Vista and it was hilarious how we continued whatsapp-ing until we met at the platform door. Bings and Leo met up with us at Itacho Sushi (Bugis Junction), and surprisingly there wasn’t any crowd unlike the other outlets such as Ion and Plaza Singapura.

The service was rather mediocre – we were ushered to the table, and the waitress left a set of menus on our table and asked us to refer to the papers. There was a stack of different coloured papers which we had no clue on how to go about ordering the food ‘cos each paper had different items. It took us quite a while to understand the system -_____- what’s funnier was, in the end we just gave our orders verbally to the waitress and she took them down using only one sheet of paper.

Apart from the rant about Itacho Sushi‘s service, the food was simply delish. The dishes are slightly different from the usual Japanese restaurants (think Sushi Tei or Ichiban Boshi), and the price stated is for one serving only unlike the usual two services per sushi dish in other restaurants.

Tamago with Crabmeat
Comes in four servings; a consensus that this is a must-order! The egg is cooked just right, and it melts in your mouth almost instantly.

Grilled Squid Sushi
Jass ordered this, whilst the rest of us cringed at the sight of it. HAHA! She sang praises for it though.

Salmon Sashimi
Comes in six servings; we didn’t order the much raved Fatty Salmon Sashimi ’cos we had ordered something similar for the sushi. This sashimi beats any restaurant hands down (‘cept maybe on par with Chikuwa Tei)!

Grilled Mackerel in Miso Paste
An item off the Promotions menu; Jass ordered this and we all had tried to stop her ‘cos the dish sounded too salty, judging by its name. However, it turned out to be a nice dish, and we agreed that it tasted ‘homely’.

Lobster Salad with Salmon Sushi
Comes in four servings; this is another must-order! The ingredients are really fresh, and we loved that the lobster salad took away the fishy smell (if any) off the salmon sashimi!

Cold Cha Soba
Ah bings and I ordered this dish for our mains; nowadays, you rarely come across restaurants serving Cha Soba in this manner (with the white radish and spring onions) with the soba soup. So, we were really pleased with this dish, albeit the soba being a little soggy.

Grilled Pork Sushi
This sushi is so delish that we ordered second rounds for it! The pork is so tender, and the marinate goes very well to cover the pork ‘smell’.

Fatty Salmon Sushi and Duck Meat Sushi
Something different that we’d opted to try; the Fatty Salmon Sushi tastes awesome but only if you’re someone who likes to eat salmon skin. The Duck Meat Sushi is something unique, but I still very much prefer my usual duck meat rice. HAHA!

Crabmeat Chawamushi
Another dish for Jass’ mains; the chawamushi arrived piping hot and the steamed egg was near perfect! Definitely a must-order as well!

*all photos were taken with my iPhone4, with minimal edits*

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Despite the slow service and some bad attitude experienced from the waitresses (as ranted by other diners as well), the dining experience at Itacho Sushi (Bugis Junction) was pretty awesome with the great food served! The total bill came up to about S$20++ per pax, which we’d thought it was reasonable, given the amount and variety of food that we had ordered. Reservations are advised, albeit the (surprise) small crowd on a Friday night.

Address:
200 Victoria Street, #B1-05 Bugis Junction
Tel: +65 6337 8911
Facebook page: Link 

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As usual, we went shopping (or rather, window shopping) after the hearty dinner, and had a great night out that ended with lots of laughters and heart-to-heart conversations on the way home. This group of friends is a gem to me, and I hope our (yearly) meet-up can be more frequent!

XOXO, Noi

Nine months;

Time flew by just like that, it’s been nine months since I stepped into a new environment.

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Met up with dear peeps after work today, and one of them mentioned a very familar scenario – ‘All pumped up upon entering this new foreign place, and energy boosted up to the maximum level and looking forward to a new day everyday. Then, all that fizzed out after time.’ It’s taking place now, all these zest were long gone and it sucks to see friends leaving one by one. No doubt the remaining ‘survivors’ are happy for them, but a tinge of sadness and paranoia is hovering over our minds now. Having said so much, I guess it all boils down to our own perserverance and beliefs. We may be stuck in a hopeless rut, but these experiences may lead us to stronger individuals and better persons. As we all know, so long that our conscience is clear and upright, bring them on nothing can defeat us. For now, I’m just gonna remain ‘zen’ (as what one of the peeps mentioned), and do my stuff. Come what may, I know I can count on the peeps. Other may doubt us or cast suspicions on us, but we’re just going to focus and channel our energy to healthier stuff. Not to mention, the support from family and friends to tide through for at least this period of time. Indeed, we’ve found love in a hopeless place.

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Our motto;

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So much for verbal diarrheoa, perhaps the heavy downpour triggered off thoughts. Nights peeps

xoxo, Noi

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

Bucket List – Cave Diving;

*Typed a whole paragraph here and it just went MIA, grrrr*

Last Friday, we had our department retreat and the whole afternoon was packed with activities. After a 20-minute laser quest session at HomeTeamNS, which left us all lethargic and sweaty, we proceeded to Science Centre Omni Theatre for the IMAX movie, Journey Into Amazing Caves.

Synopsis of the movie
(Credits: Omni Theatre)
All over our planet are landscapes that hold caves beneath them. Challenged by the underground frontier and inspired by the secrets it may yield, cavers share a passion for exploration. Journey into Amazing Caves follows Dr. Hazel Barton and Nancy Aulenbach on an adventure as they explore unusual caves, like ice caves in Greenland and underwater caves in the jungles of Mexico, looking for important clues about the Earth’s past and microorganisms that inhabit its most extreme environments.

Come join us on an adventure from the natural world…into the unexplored depths of the underground landscapes that are as beautiful and vital as any other place on Earth.

–

The movie was really an eye-opener, especially since I’ve never heard of cave diving before. I only know of the open water diving and night diving, which I haven’t even conquered yet. The caves and waters shown in the movie were breathtaking, and I’m still in awe of the descent that the team had done in Antarctica. The glaciers proved to be great danger to the team, and they were risking their lives just so that they could collect samples of micro-organisms that may be the next drugs or antibiotics to fight human illness. Cave diving is one of the most dangerous activities, with many fatalities reported. One of the fatalities involved a cave diver’s operation to retrieve a dead cave diver’s body, but he himself died during the process.

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Before I list cave diving into my bucket list, I think it’s more practical to conquer my fear of water, and complete my basic diving course first. Hopefully the June’12 trip with besties can go as planned! Redang, Dayang, Tioman, or Bali, bring them on!

–
Bali

Pulau Dayang

Pulau Redang

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xoxo, Noi

Happy New Year 2012!

There’s a backlog of photos that I really need to update soonest, but due to a packed week ahead, I shall just post the preview for MYnt first A new collection will be launched tonight at 8.30pm. For preview, you can check out the Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/MYntShoppe <3

Here’s the preview banner, and a couple of my personal favourites from this collection! ;D

 

That aside, I spent my last day of year 2011 counting down to year 2012 with these peeps! We had actually pitched a tent at West Coast Park, and counted down to another great year with the other tent-pitchers. Heh, a whole new experience I must say, though we gave up after the count-down and ran for ‘shelter’ at McDonald’s to seek refuge for the night. Loving them! More photos to be up, I pinkie swear!

Day one of work later for a new year – bless us please.

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.

Movie Review: “那些年 我们一起追的女孩”

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~如果你真的很喜歡一個女孩的話
當新郎不是妳的話
那麼你永遠無法祝福她。
結果：不，當你真的很喜歡一個女孩的話，
那麼無論新郎是誰，你都會真心祝福她。~

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~被你喜歡過，就感覺別人沒那麼喜歡了。~

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~成長，最殘酷的部份就是
女孩子永遠比同年齡的男孩子成熟~

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~戀愛最美好的，就是曖昧的時候。~

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- Excerpts from 那些年語錄 on Facebook -

Details:
English translation of movie title: “You Are the Apple of My Eye”
1hr 45min – Romance, Drama (Mandarin)
Director: Giddens Ko
Writer: Giddens Ko (novel)
Stars: Zhendong Ke, Michelle Chen and Owodog

This movie from Taiwan, 那些年 我们一起追的女孩, originated from a novel by Giddens Ko also known affectionately to his fans as Ji Ba-Dao (九把刀). Spawned off from his novel, 那些年 我们一起追的女孩 has been well-received by many who have caught this movie! Though readers of his novel have commented that the contents differ slightly, but I guess a movie could only summarise so much into a short span of 105 minutes.

For me, the movie brought back many bittersweet memories of Secondary School life – the mugging for exams, the falling out of love moments, the crushes I had, the BGR rumours, and of course the bickers with friends. Till date, the memories I had from then remained most vivid to me. Though I may have difficulties remembering the names of all the people whom I have crossed paths with, I could still remember most of the scenes and some are quite laughable, to be honest. That’s how 那些年 我们一起追的女孩 does to most people I guess; friends around me have raved about the movie. The cute leads added brownie points to the movie! Many were not convinced that Michelle Chen (the female lead) is actually almost 10 years older than her character in the movie and Zhendong Ke (the male lead). The humour in the movie rounded up this sweet movie perfectly, and most locals would definitely be able to relate to the humour.

All in all, do catch it if you haven’t! A must-watch for all, I reckon

Rating:

.5 out of 5 popcorns

The movie kind of made me missed my Secondary School life so much; given anything in this world, I wouldn’t trade this four years away. And of course, I’m thankful for the friends (from Secondary School) that I hold dear to. Coming December, we’re so gonna organise a meet-up to celebrate their after-exams and to catch up!

xx, Noi.

♥♥♥

- 我想成為一個很厲害的人， 讓這個世界因為有了我而有一點點的改變 而我的世界，不過就是妳的心 -