A prayer every day and night;

Been sleeping at 1am and waking up at 5ish to 6am for the past two weeks; all in the name for mugging and finishing off the video assignment. Not to mention, preparing for the Malaysia trip (passport renewal), the half-marathon (Sundown) on 26th May, and some MYnt stuff too. Need to clear work deadlines as well, ‘cos of my leave taken for the exams next week. Two more weeks to freedom, but I am still in a jittery mode ‘cos two of the three modules are my weakest subjects by far. LET ME PASS PLEASE!

xx These motivational Tumblr posts are really timely for now.

Credits: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4

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

xx

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*

xx
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

xx

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

xx

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!

xx

TGIF peeps! Looking forward to tonight

xoxo, Noi

“I vow to love you…”;

I vow to love you, and no matter what challenges might carry us apart,
we will always find a way back to each other.

xx

Details:
Movie title: “The Vow“
1hr 44min – Romance, Drama
Director: Michael Sucsy
Stars: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, and Sam Neill

Been anticipating this movie release even before Valentine’s Day, no thanks to the movie trailer that almost everyone (or rather, girls) has shared on Facebook. Similar to the sob-story formats like The Notebook, The Vow had a more interesting story-line and it felt more real to me too. Not to mention that it’s inspired by true events (read it here), and the leads are good-looking! Heh. It could be a little too draggy at some points, but the suave charisma by Channing Tatum sustained the charm of the movie. Rachel McAdams portrayed her character really well, but the supporting characters were a little lacklustre. Nonetheless, it’s a good movie to catch on weeknights, and the plot did get me thinking about the amazing love between the couple. I say, save the weekend bucks for other ongoing movies

xx

Some quotes that I really like,

Rating:

out of 5 popcorns

Tumblr-worthy posts for a Monday

All posts credit to Google Images and the respective owners.

- A must-have skill in life I reckon -
-

- Don’t ever take your mommy for granted -

-
- #likeaboss --
- #likeaboss yet again -
-
- ‘cos life is too short #clichelikenoother -
-
- the people who laugh… remember, they are morons -
-
- without a doubt -

xoxo, Noi.

Movie Review: “那些年 我们一起追的女孩”

————————
~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。~

————————
~被你喜歡過，就感覺別人沒那麼喜歡了。~

————————
~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~

————————
~戀愛最美好的，就是曖昧的時候。~

————————
- 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 -

Photo log; when words are unspoken.

Lately, there have been a lot of depressing news - the inhumane act by Chinese people on an innocent two-year-old toddler in China, the passing of a great racer Dan Wheldon, and the still-missing Singaporean Kouk Leong Jin. Just wanna say, big hugs to everyone. Hang in there! Cheers to life, and suck it up when life isn’t going the way you want it to be.

Photo log entries are awesome; the photos below pretty summed up on my October 2011 so far.

Of pills, daisies, Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream treat after Escapade 2011 rehearsal, more daisies, Ben & Jerry’s Chunkfest 2011 (my first!), mommy’s ai xin fruits box, getting back to my running regime,  textagram, tweegram, inspirational quotes, dinner dates, and lots of love xoxoxoxo.

Till the next; x, out.

When life sucks, we just got to chin up!

I know the cliche statement of it being easier said than done; I’ve been pretty down with various ‘upsetting’ sources, be it friendship, school, or work. Everything just came like boomz! Anyways, mommy, sister and Stan gave really great advices… Instead of jumping head on into everything, try taking a step back and calm yourself down.

Perhaps things aren’t as bad as what they had seemed, perhaps it’s just a matter of perspective. That being said, I had a great retreat session on Wednesday the view from our seminar room facing the golf course was beautiful. The rain made it seemed a little more magical I think don’t you agree? The retreat session was a great bonding session with various department representatives, whom we would have minimal interaction unless you are in the outreach team. Being the ‘most junior’ position among all the directors and senior lecturers, I realised I certainly have so much more to learn from them.

Whenever I update this site on Fridays, it kinda scares me that time has past by us so so fast. It’s another week people! Inching into the month of October, it’s mommy’s birthday month. Right before that, it’s gonna be my birthday! A simple wish, nothing fancy… just dinners and gatherings with a few groups of people whom have planned. As we move on into various journeys of our lives, everyone has their own commitments and schedules. Hence, a simple dinner gathering is more than I could ask for =)

Four Seasons Durian Mooncakes

Last Sunday was one of the rare times that Stan came up to my place, haha. Prior to that, we met up at Jurong Point for some mooncake shopping. As expected, the Goodwood Park Hotel enjoyed the most crowd, but we skipped that after hearing rants (not raves) about their mooncakes this year. We walked round the various booths at least three times, before settling on Four Seasons durian mooncakes. I thought it was still pricey though. The Mao Shan Wang durian mini mooncakes cost S$88 per box of 8, but with any purchase of durian mooncakes, it will be discounted half price. So, we bought one box of four normal durian mooncakes and a box of mixed snowskin mooncakes. Our families enjoyed them very much, so I guess that’s all worth it!

All smiles!

Monday was the actual Mooncake/Lantern Festival; mommy, sister, and I had a great simple dinner spread at home. We had planned to head down for some mini candle/lantern fun ourselves, but dear Rain God didn’t help and it suddenly poured just when we reached our void deck. Meh, so in the end…we just played some candles outside our house. Lol, childhood memories of lighting up lots of candles forming heart shapes came floating back. Especially those times when secondary school peeps and I would meet up at the canal near Jurongville Secondary School , and we would just play till late and head for supper nearby. Those were the days…

Colourful Candles x2

Colourful Candles

Somewhat too lengthy a post yeah? School is starting today yo. Just wanna finish my assignment by tonight so that I can enjoy my weekend with loves! Dinners, a run on Sunday, and more dinners next week. Chin up people, it’s Friday! Ending this post with some photos and light-hearted words (from Tumblr, a lovely site) for a Friday. ;)

x, out.

QOTD;

Yesterday, mommykin left a quote with me that lingered on my mind for awhile until now…

“Don’t spend time on people who waste your time and are not worth your time; instead, spend time only with people whom you know cherish your time as well.”  – loosely translated from Mandarin…

How true,

are you worth my time?

QOTD

Hello all!

I know I havent been updating this much as frequently as before. Been really tied up with work and MYnt! Promise I’ll do some updating tonight!

For now, here’s a quote that I thought it’s pretty meaningful. Credits to this link.

As I look back on all that’s happened..growing up, growing together, changing you, changing me — there were times when we dreamed together, when we laughed and cried together. As I look back on those days, I realize how much I truly miss you and how much I truly love you. The past may be gone forever..and whatever the future holds, our todays make the memories of tomorrow. So, my lifetime friend, it is with all my heart that I send you my love, hoping that you’ll always carry my smile with you, for all we have meant to each other and for whatever the future may hold.
– Author Unknown

How true, how apt.
More often than usual, I just want you to know.
All I hope, is to see you happy.

x, out.

QOTD

尽了全力，无能为力，只好放弃，安静离去.

- Noi.