Werner's Oven & Ginseng Chicken Weekend.

I finally got the chance to visit Werner's Oven (YES, German food!)after so long...

And, of course, I had to order my all-time favourite.

Here's the refreshing ginger beer!

And XQ's Jagermeister... which tasted very 补 as it is made up of 50+ herbs.

Anything german makes me excited.


Alles auf Deutsch!

Then I headed town for Ginseng Chicken!

The starters.

The usual Korean spread.

And of course, the highlight of the day, Ginseng Chicken! I'm always amused and happy with the glutinous rice within the chicken. Good food makes a happy weekend!

Exercise!

Recently, I've been quite an exercise freak (as compared to the past). Mondays have become my jogging day, and Thursdays will be my swimming day?

It feels good to be able to sweat it out... and I have this sense of accomplishment as I record the distance that I covered each time I jog. And interestingly, I think I feel more energetic too, and am always looking forward to the next session.

Once a week was a good target to start off with! :) This year, I'm contemplating to start swimming too. Make it twice a week- jogging once a week and swimming is the "bonus". I shall take slow and small steps, enjoy and sustain it. Talk about celebrating small successes, haha. ;)

Bread and butter #335 (Besser Tag!)

Heute wird ist ein besser Tag! :D

Firstly I had an interesting session with my boy, using and adapting XY's very interesting idea... I hope my message was powerful and thought-provoking enough to push him to reflect more!

During lunch time, my dear boy called to tell me that he is now doing his attachment/training for something that he always wanted to do. So happy that he took action! I hope he will continue to persevere. God, please bless him!

Then, in late afternoon, the Miracle boys popped by to jam... BT recorded a song sang by one of them (while the rest were jamming). The lyrics include, "Social Workers! You're the best~~" So super cute and sweet! And BT told me they mentioned my name too, but it was not caught on video. Nonetheless, such a sweet sweet validation. :) :) :)

I will strive for the better! For students, with students.

Bread and butter #334 (Haiii...)

Love myself- isn't that my life goal? How come I still find it hard to do so, after such a long long time? :(

I'm glad I had someone to talk with when my emotions were churning:

...but i always tell myself that even if such things happen, it may be because of something that i haven yet equip myself with the skills to do it yet

so i will tell myself to get thru it and slowly learn lor..

haha i have learnt over the years to allow myself plenty of room and time to grow...

grow from my flaws, grow from my incapacities

u know, in this cruel hard cold world, many pp will give us stick le..

the last thing i wana do for myself is to add stick on to myself...

haha it sounds a bit self-love, a bit ego

but suffering from ur own defined deflated ego is probably worse than what pp say about u, because the former reinforces what you think it is...

Haiii......

Cycle. Cycling. Cycled!

After having a positive experience cycling on a double-bike at East Coast Park with my girl, I was kind of inspired to master the skill of cycling, although I was having a lot of self-doubts about myself. I have never mastered anything physical properly de lor... but can try lah.

So I went all out... really all out, to learn cycling. Took me a lot of determination to go so far okay! :P

This was only the second time I tried cycling. I cycled both times with the guidance from Miss Ong. She has been very affirming and encouraging... always telling me to take small steps and celebrating every small success with me.


I was asked to put one feet on one paddle first, and then balance myself using another feet. Not sure how to describe it with words, haha, but it's just "trying to cycle, but not really cycling" lah.

Then during first lesson, if I did not remember wrongly, I did paddle for 1.5 rounds (according to Miss Ong's sharp observation)... when I paddled 0.25 round, she also encourage me lor... where to find such a good and patient teacher who will celebrate every success de? Made me feel so assured and willing to try so that I will not let her down.

So during my 2nd lesson, I kept trying very hard to put both feet on the paddles. And as I tried to balance myself, I tried to paddle at the same time... then I hovered around. I think I must have looked quite funny, because I was swinging from left to right along the cycling lane... crushing into poor (now flat) bushes and also (painfully) landed on a prickly bush. Ouchy. I didn't know it was so prickly until I doink-ed back into the bush for a second time as I couldn't get out of it successfully.

But anyway! Pricks and grease aside, I managed to cycle for a bit! Less than 100m, of course... but I am sure with more practice, I can cycle for a longer time! 皇天不负有心人. :) I think both me and my Shifu did a great job- me in persevering and her in teaching! And, I think she deserved a good treat from me, so I treated her to pumpkin soup. (She said she only wanted pumpkin soup.) Hahahaha.

Here's my reward! Mushroom Creamy Linguine! One of my favourite food! :)

And my scars by prickly bush. They scare me so... now the scars made me look like I went for a cat fight... Hahahahahahaha.

Archipelago with Harem & Family Friends.

A sweet and simple welcome note from Watami staff! Pleasant surprise :)

Potato mochi! Yummy! :)

According to foodie expert Ms Kee, the food below is supposed to 解酒 for the Japanese.

The ramen is cold cold de. I prefer hot ramen still. Haha. Garlic rice will be better if it's saltier.

But anyway, the sushi is so so YUMMY! I seldom eat raw tuna, but this is good man!

Very nice dessert recommended by Julia... sweet and refreshing!

And of course, my favourite green tea icecream with crepes!

The food made me very happy... and to wrap up the wonderful evening, I had my favourite Archipelago!

Lovely Samui. :) :) :)

EVERY FRIDAY SHOULD BE LIKE THIS!!! SHIOK! :D

Thanks girls for the lovely time.

Bread and butter #333 (=))

Miss Koh simply melted when her student asked if she wanna join them for dinner... After having so many self-doubts, that's a very nice validation. =)

Recently, I've been thinking about how my work has benefitted my kids... Have I really created a positive impact, or am I just like any other nagging and boring adult in their lives?

Some things happened, and I kept wondering... Am I still that helpless little shrimp? Or have I developed into a tiger prawn, like what BT said? It's interesting (and sometimes, scary) to see the intricate link between work and feelings on self.

Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal - The Last Lecture.

I guess I just have to keep walking.

What are my Stones?

This is something worth thinking about. ;)

Bread and butter #332 (Heartache...)

After hearing a piece of bad news towards the end of 2009, I heard another piece of bad news... this time round, even more heart pain, 'cos I never ever thought it would happen... =( =( =(

I feel like meeting them...

*

Throughout the whole day, whenever I think of what happened, I can't help but feel very upset... in fact, the impact is even larger this time round.

I still remember the mutton rendang. It was so sweet of you to even think of that. So many wonderful things I saw... lovely memories too.

I wonder if I have made a little bit more extra effort, would there be a different outcome today. Or is it so challenging, that it's inevitable?

Gonna sleep with a heartache tonight...

光.Hikaru.ヒカル

Bought her latest album a few months back... the first song of the album is captivating, her voice is lovely! How I wish I could attend her concert someday! Staying hopeful! =)

If I were to live my life again...

I hope it won't get too unbearable. You looked so bored and disengaged that I feel bored looking at you. Some things are unfortunately, irreversible. And you just gotta live with it.

If I were to live my life again, I will still live the way I have been living.

Out and limited.

Sometimes I feel very out of place. But I'm glad I can regulate those moments...

Am I really limiting myself that much?

That is something worth reflecting upon.

♥♥♥♥♥

Strawberry Shortcake!♥

Japanese (Hokkaido?) snack found in Watsons. Packaging is so nice, I must buy.

Eliz couldn't ship lu rou fan over, so she got these for me from Taiwan! ♥

My scrapbooking bag for the year-end adventure! ♥

New dress! ♥

I should be detained at some Shopping Rehabilitation Centre lah.

Seeing the good out of everything.

Thank you again, for listening and for trying to inject positive thinking into me! It's very very therapeutic to have you just sitting beside me and genuinely showing your concern. I'm blessed to have known you. =)

Bread and butter #331 (SM's Birthday!)

Last night, we kidnapped SM at 6.45pm...

And we tried the G-MAX Ultimate Swing! Crazy idea by BT, but I guess it's worth it if it's enjoyable and exciting!

All sitting in a row, we were hung up in the air for approximately 8 storeys high and "thrown" down all of a sudden. SM was given the honour to press the button to start the swinging (not sure if it's a button because I couldn't see- we were asked to remove our spectacles if not they will be thrown off from the impact of the swing). That made the experience seemed a little bit more predictable but I didn't know when SM pushed it down. T.T

P/S: The guys were as scared as the girls, I swear!

After the ride of our lifetime, we had a good dinner at SM's favourite rural "high-class" place.

To the best guy friend ever, happy 30th birthday! =)

Bread and butter #330 (Hurray to the new year!)

For the first week of work, we've been having meetings after meetings (okay, only 3 meetings but they are long ones), which left me not much time for paperwork. The usual dreaded ***** is back, and I just gotta complete it. With some level of stress injected by our lovely sanguine SW, I very quickly rode on the highway of efficiency. NO time to lose, NO time to whine. Haha, I'm so glad when everything is (tentatively) over on 8 January, 6pm. One more annual report, and I will be ready for programme-planning. :)

*

The "new year" feeling has a very special impact on me. I somehow have this sense of empowerment to handle the challenges that I may face, to see beyond the walls. Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal. - The Last Lecture ;)

Workwise: I have been given new and additional responsibilities. I can foresee some possible shit being thrown at me, but I'm ready to shield myself from them or hadouken them away. I'm inspired to bring forth energy... positive changes... for the better, for us and more importantly, for the kids.

This year, we're embarking on an exciting new venture too. I can't really tell what entails yet, but I'm excited about it already. :)

As for my usual portfolio, I'm determined to reexamine and reassess my work. The loopholes are a pain in the ass, and they are not going to be beneficial. I will (hopefully) think with a more critical mind, learn with an open heart, venture the unknown, record as much practice wisdom as possible, and have more faith in myself.

*

Adventure-wise: I kind of silently abandoned the long-awaited one due to many unforeseen circumstances. Not my fault, really. But I'm very happy to have an adventure with the Nua Girls (this is a horrible name, we should find a new name soon lah) to look forward to. It should be 10% fixed. I am super gian about it, because I think I really deserve it after so much hard work last year. In addition, I'm toying with a whole new idea! :P

*

Dreams-wise: There are some things that I wish to pursue, but failed to do so, due to practical constraints. But these dreams, I will continue to hold on to them dearly because they mean a lot to me... Step by step, slowly but surely.

*

I'm glad to say that things have been smoothsailing so far. It's been 264 days of good and hard work. Took loads of perseverance and courage to tide through. It was a tough time and I doubt that anyone will ever understand.

Everything happens for a reason. For the few who stayed to find out the reason and continued to stay around to tend to the wound, thank you... For Happy who continued walking despite all the difficulties, thank you for inspiring me to have the strength to move on like how you did. For those who injected nirvana, thank you too (including the one who wished me Happy New Year 10 days late)...

I've come to realise many realities of life, and I'm learning to embrace the most important things in my life instead of holding on to silly little ideologies which tend to make me stumble and fall.

This year will certainly be a better year.

This is 10 days late, but who cares! HAPPY 2010!!!

The Lovely Harem @ La Salle.

We started off our date with very yummy dim sum. =)

Julia said I'm jealous of her flawless skin. =_=

And then, we wandered off to La Salle. Before that, I bumped into dear Eliz who was at work (it was OT's day!). I was supposed to meet her and the rest of the Nua girls for dinner lor. Such a coincidence. =)

A very LOL 琼瑶 pose.

We were actually posing for MY camera, but Julia had to die die use her camera too.

There is a beautiful bridge linking the different blocks!

Interesting shot by Julia.

See, Julia's so happy to be with me.

Us on the beautiful bridge!

We wrote a card for Shang May while she was drifting in and out of sleep, hahaha.
Done!

And then we wandered around the campus, and found a patch of lovely grass (albeit, artificial).

Someone asked me to pose. Not I pose myself one lor.

I love my shoes! =)

Love this shot too!

And lastly, of course, a compulsory Harem group photo.

Have I shared how intricately we are linked with each other? Julia, Lijia and me were JC school mates. Julia and me were JC classmates. Lijia and Julia were secondary school mates and AJCO members. Shang May and Julia were university coursemates. Shang May used to be SCS Hougang's volunteer. Julia's our current SCS Clementi's volunteer. Shortly after that, Lijia became our volunteer too. And most importantly, Julia feels that we're important to her. *clears throat*