Meet up with the SCS folks. :)

Dropped by SCS Clementi after my lesson (which ends at 5... I never skip lesson hor!) to meet up with the SCS folks- a term coined by Benjamin.Paid respect to "boss" and managed to take a picture with her! :D

Finally ahhh, I've waited for this moment for quite a long time. No one ever noticed that my wish "Take pictures with SCS Staff" has never been striked out even after a long long time after the end of my attachment there? Haiyoyo, it's because I have not taken a picture together with the much-adored idol there! Haha.

Had free dinner there because they have leftovers from their party and then headed to Benjamin's cafe. As compassionate beings, once we know that folding a crane will result in the sponsoring of one bowl of rice, we gladly folded cranes for quite a long time until Tremandy and the boss got worried if we'll have OCD from continuous folding of cranes. Haha.

I was pretty amazed at how Seng Meng's first crane turn out to be...

(Please refer to the crane on the left)The head is practically at the same level as the tail and there is completely no tilt in the butt the tail of the crane. It looks (seriously) like a dinosaur. Cannot stop laughing at it.No 前凸后翘 at all. Poor crane, haha.

Think Diana will do a good job as a spokesman for the cafe. (I heard the milky drink, that she is holding on to, is not bad.)

We played Police and Murderer, where the moderator chooses both the police and the murderer, the police knows who is the murderer while the murderer does not know who the police is, and the police will have to hint or influence the commoners to guess the murderer correctly. If not, the murderer will have a chance to kill anyone. If that "anyone" happens to be the police, then it'll be the end of the game. If the guess is incorrect, murderer gets away scotfree. Boo.

For the first round, I was chosen by Benjamin to be the murderer. As instructions were not given clearly (bleah!), I was slow at responding and the stupid moderator said that the murderer (who is ME!) is blur. As a result, the rest somehow guessed the blur murderer was me. Duh.

The way they assessed the reactions and the roles that we each have is darn funny.

"It's either the loudest or the quietest or the ones sitting in the centre..."
Good suggestion, haha!

Why is everyone so camera-shy when I am taking photos of them?!

Seng Meng, me and Theresa.

It's rather therapeutic to hang out with them. Really really miss the times when we worked together. The environment, the people, the dynamics... I've thought a lot about working as a Social Worker in the future.

Seeing and experiencing people, whom I have used to work closely with, leaving the field made and is still making me feel sad. But I've come to realise the importance of treasuring whatever I have now.

What I mean is, treasure the environment that I used to have in SCS, treasure the colleagues whom I have worked with, treasure and remember the times we slogged and enjoyed together. As compared to getting all sad about people leaving, I try to think back about the good and bad times that we've went through together.

At least, we've crossed each other's lives at a certain point of time in our lives.

Love you all, who has each played a part in influencing my view on Social Work.

P/S: I got more and more worried and lost as I spoke to someone. Someone asked me quite a few number of questions and they set me thinking...Wondering why did I want to choose this field, wondering why I want to work with students, wondering if I am going back for the people, wondering if I am doing what I want to do, wondering if this is the best for me.

After being quite sure about working in the social service sector a few months back, the questions blown me away. I think I have never given enough thought about these- such that I cannot give myself a definite answer now.

Thank you for your patience!! :)

Sick.

Sore throat? Yiew Sim Qiu.
Running nose? Tissue papers.
Continuous coughings? Apple with Chuan Bei, Nan Bei Xing, and Ji Bing.

Yesterday, my continuous use of tissue papers caused the skin around my nostrils to turn red and then, 破皮. I can't control the 鼻涕, and I can't control myself from wiping off the 鼻涕. I can't simply let the 鼻涕 drip right? Grrr.

I totally have no idea why I fell sick. I every day 好吃好睡. It's so difficult to fall sick lor.

My Undergraduate Days #25 (Just a normal day.)

Sent the thing over this morning.
Photocopied stuff in the photocopying room.
Met Sabrina in Central Library and we talked for around half an hour, realised that we forgot each other's name and exchanged numbers.
Went for Reason and Persuasion (Philosophy lecture) and slept in the lecture theater.
Felt horrible because I don't understand what the lecturer was talking about.
Still nursing a sore throat.
And now, a running nose. Great.
I'm feeling weird now. On one hand, I wish to study, but on the other, I feel like slacking.
Goodness, I need someone to give me a good whack.
打起精神来啊，Cindy Koh!

上火...

Yesterday night, I stayed up late till 2am because I was rushing to finish up a very important document. Oh well, as I was feeling too lazy, I only managed to finish half of it. Stared at the computer screen for hours and I finally finished it today at around 4pm. Feeling quite satisfied but a little uneasy.

After staying up late and eating some chocolates, I have earned myself a sore throat. My mum thinks it's because of my late nights.

"迟睡觉会很容易上火的。"

Alright, I already 上火 liao lah. Goodness.

Anyway, after some whining (hehe), mum prepared 'old ginseng roots' drink for me. Hot water is supposed to be added to the roots. In Hokkien, we call it Yiew Sim Qiu. I don't like the taste but it's quite effective in curing sore throats. Mum's the best.

Yay, sleep early today!!

Review for Year 2006

Saw this in Joan's blog and recalled that I did one such entry last year! Hehe, it's already halfway through January but it's not too late to create such an entry right? (Say yes)

Write down the first sentence of the first entry in the past twelve months:

Heng ah! Whine. Crap I can't sleep after saying goodnight to all my friends on MSN. Teaching used to be my passion. I just made a very small decision and it has made my heart ache so much because I was really put into a very difficult situation. Girls, please don't allow any guys to throw you any comments which will not do you justice or don't allow them to affect your emotions so much!!! Samsung. It's Labour Day!! Such a lovely line about life from Rebecca. Today's German Praeteritum Test was fun! As I covered more and more Social Work modules and knowledge, I realised being a good Social worker is so not easy. Recently, I've been watching this Anime.

Hmm, doesn't flow as well as last year leh. Never mind.

Reflection:
Turning to friends do not ALWAYS help me to feel better about myself and the situations that I face. Thus, I turned to myself (the most dependable being for Cindy Koh). Afterall, I am the one responsible for my own well-being. No one else will care for me as much as I care for myself. Sounds too independent, but it is a fact.

To constantly remind myself of my goals in life, I put them as part of my nick...

And over time, my nick grew longer and longer. Haha.

''馨丽要快乐， 健康又美丽！他也要学会多爱自己一点哦！[I will enjoy the strolls before I learn how to fly]只要笑一笑，没什么事过不了I will not give in to madness.''

So today, I've decided to shorten it, because I think I have sort of digested what I wanted to remind myself. The origins of each part of my long nick are actually quite interesting. :)


馨丽要快乐， 健康又美丽！她也要学会多爱自己一点哦！
Came up with this after I read this. I forgot how I chanced upon this very girly blog, but the main point is, I enjoyed reading the entries and found that they make a lot of sense. Felt quite enlightened after reading it (though it's not updated since I read them last year) and adopted a sentence in one of the entry because I find it very heartwarming. We've always wanted to find someone we love, but have we ever thought of how we want and should love ourselves before offering our love to others?

[I will enjoy the strolls before I learn how to fly]
Got this from my dear colleague. Had a long chat with her after a long day (after work, we met up with some youths till night time), expressed my fears and hopes and she told me this. I don't quite understand at the very beginning, but grew to understand it slowly. I was really glad that she listened patiently to my heart felts even though she's tired. Aww.

只要笑一笑，没什么事过不了!
Adopted this from the drama, Smile Pasta! It was quite a silly drama but it cheered me up, and whatever the female lead said touched me a lot, especially the ''brothers'' part. Although this line might sound naive because most problems do not get solved simply by smiling, it definitely kept me going when I was in doubt. It has not been easy for me, but I could reframe using this line. Not bad eh? Hehe.

I will not give in to madness.
Oh, this is like a long-long-time-ago story. Haha. Got this from an email sent by Julia long time ago. I still have that mail with me. Forwarded it to my senior and she found it very nice and inspiring. Reading the email brought hope to me when I was experiencing one of my shitty times. It is a very very nice email. Really. So yep, I've been trying to convince myself to not give in to madness. From "I will try not to give in to madness", I moved on to "I will not give in to madness. I am determined to be strong. I must be convinced with that myself before I can really grow strong, eh?

Yep, so adopt quotes if you can. I find some quotes interesting but they don't really apply to each individual. So find one for yourself and realise it! It worked wonders for me. :)

My Undergraduate Days #24 (HAPPY SOCIAL WORKERS' DAY!!!)

Me very very happy because it's Social Workers' Day! :DAnd naturally, the Day was featured in Straits Times with a grand total of 7 pages.
The 8 前辈s who are major contributors to the field.
Found a long article about helping social workers to help themselves. *hint hint*

If you're a NUS student, you might have seen Ann Wee (sitting down, on the extreme left) occasionally around the AS6 zone. She lectured for one of the lectures for my SW1101E. So happy to see her (and also, other seniors') efforts being recognised.

With the ministers.

There was quite a big crowd. Might have been a bigger crowd if there's no rain.

Theresa and me.
I wish... I wish...
Make a wish for the Social Work profession!

Theresa, me, Tremandy and Sockling.

It's so heartwarming to see so many familiar faces. Sudha Nair, Timothy Sim, Alex Lee, Dr Vasoo, Ann Wee, Cher Meng, Tremandy, Seng Meng, Diana, Theresa, Puay San, Sockling, Yin Mei... and also a lot of Social Work mates.

Me and Rachel were thinking, that in the future, we'll be cheering for Ms Nair for her contributions to the field. I have not forgotten my wish- to take a photo with Ms Nair. Now that I am doing a module under her, the wish is going to be easily fulfiled. Yay.

The common passion that we hold on to will bring us far, I believe.

Happy Social Workers' Day.


P/S: It feels great to be able to share my thoughts about Social Work with you, Rachel.
Thanks for the well-wishes, Julia, Sharifah and Yujie.

Eyes for thought.

A couple of weeks back, I was quite scared at the thought of going for Lasik. Although I did not read up about it, the thought of going for operation already scares me. Now, I'm wearing contact lenses every day, and every day I feel very uncomfortable from wearing them. Makes me feel like peeling them out of my eyes and giving up being able to see properly without any form of aid. Terrible irritation.

So, now I'm considering Lasik once I finish paying my Tuition Fees. Blah. Just a thought lah. I might chicken out in a few months time. Haha.

My Undergraduate Days #23 (Got sell coffee?)

I forgot to mention something that happened yesterday before my Counselling lecture! After the first hilarious event (我会发电~), I encountered my second hilarious event of the day.

I was thinking real hard if the AS6 walkway foodcart sells coffee. (I see coffee cups but I never dare to ask...) Then, I saw an acquaintance queuing for his food. I decided to ask him to help me ask if they sell coffee at all.


Guy: Aunty ah, 你有没有卖咖啡？

Aunty: 有啊。

Guy: 哦...好!!


He's so cute can. Hahaha~

P/S: So there's actually coffee and tea lah! WEE-HOO! Drinking hot beverages during lecture is simply shiok man! YEAHHH!!!

My Undergraduate Days #22 (Cindy is feeling happy.)

I am starting to crave for studying. (You must be thinking, this girl is siao eh!) It feels like my last semester, so it's sort of like the last lap of 2.4km run. I know learning doesn't stop but it's going to officially end very soon. Discussed about our studies and career with some Social Work mates and realised most of us are lost. The only difference is perhaps, some are very lost while some are not so lost.

The Social Work Department is having some fair today along AS6 walkway and I went to have a look with Serene.Got myself this free magnet from the board.The quote reminds me of someone... Oh, and I saw a familiar face on the board!Wahahahahahahaaa~ I sms-ed him immediately and his response was really hilarious.

Julia came over for a visit (actual motive is to return the book that I helped her to borrow) and we had lunch together. She showed me this too.

Notice that the 'E' was added in using black marker.


Was entertained with a tale.

话说有一天，Julia met a triple E guy in NTU...

(can an engineering student kindly tell me what it stands for? I only know that one 'E' stands for electrical)

Curious about it, Julia asked more and the guy said...






.
.
.
.
.
.
.


"我会发电~"

Some guys just know very well how to turn girls off upon first meeting.

P/S: Social Work lessons are getting more and more interesting and challenging, especially Counselling lessons (which are only offered to Social Work students). Alex Lee is very engaging and the teaching modes are wonderful-lecture proper, video, role-play, discussion of role-play. I was really lost halfway through the counselling role-play but got reminded by him that we're always learning and improving on our skills. I will continue to work hard!!!

加油! 加油! 加油!!!

Reminder: Though I am not helping out on Social Workers' Day, I am going down to National Youth Council Park to give my utmost moral support to the Social Workers and also to my fellow Social Work mates. Please come over if you're free. :D

ANNOUNCEMENT!

SOCIAL WORKERS' DAY IS ON 20TH JANUARY! :D

Time: 2pm-5pm
Venue: National Youth Council Park

In order to raise awareness among my friends about the profession that I hold close to my heart, I am going to rant about this important day from time to time. Hee. I am most probably dropping by National Youth Council Park! So far, I am very free on that day.

(Update: So far, Rachel and Weiping have expressed their interest to go. Anyone else?)

Since some of you all have been asking me what's social work all about, wouldn't it be nice for you to meet the social workers themselves? I bet there will be a lot of social workers (including my colleagues) and social work students there. Come meet us! :D

P/S: Got reminded of this when I saw a fellow coursemate's organiser, and at the 20th January column, she wrote in BIG font "SOCIAL WORKERS' DAY". Haa, I did this in my organiser too!

Honesty and friends.

People say honesty is the best policy. Is this always the case?

A friend has just told me a few days back that she managed to talk through the misunderstandings that she used to have with her friend. I thought that was quite well done.

Looking back, I did not really talk through misunderstandings with my friends. Sometimes, I'll just shut up because I do not know how to argue my way through. (My GP is B3 only hor.) Even though people might think that, given my personality, I'll scold my way through and make sure my friends "lose", this is seldom the case.

Sometimes it does hurt to hear, see or feel the truth. Occasionally I lie to make people feel better. Of course, I don't do it all the time!

Other times, I will avoid saying anything because there is a high chance that people will not get what I mean (partly due to my lousy language capability), and then people might end up to have more misunderstandings of me. What the hell.

Do we human beings always need to know the truth?

To think about it, I do not even want to remember the bad times (the misunderstandings), because all I wish is for better times with my friends. Is this the result of aging? I seem to be more open to options and possibilities in life, and learn to treasure whatever I have now. Afterall, we do not know when we will die.

P/S: The last and only time (for as long as I could remember) I cried together with a friend is during a long break before Parents-Teacher Conference when I was Secondary 4. It was so heartwarming to be able to put down my strong front and allow my emotions to flow...

Late afternoon tea with Rachel and Joleen.

It's been a long time since I meet up and have chats with both Rachel and Joleen. Joleen changed her hair colour! I think black is quite cool eh! :DFound a cosy corner in Coffeebean, instead of BEANstalk because we did not know that it's not opened in the weekends. We were a little bit disappointed. Gah.Joleen bought us earrings for Christmas presents! I took the sunshine one.

I really miss the times when we worked and evaluated our work together, snacked together, eyed each other during work and encourage each other. I miss the days ahhhh!

Anyway, Rachel is joining me to go see see and look look at National Youth Council Park on Social Workers' Day! It's on 20th January. Hee, I know this is the second time I am saying this. I don't care lah.

P/S: Clap clap for Joleen who is now embarking on her journey as a Social Worker.

Lunch with Flowers.

Meeting date and venue kept changing, such that I thought the meeting was impossible. We finally met over the weekends! :)

Hoho Ming En and Serene (who's wearing her birthday tee).First time seeing Rebecca after so many months.Just in case you are wondering why we look so spaced out, we're looking into Rebecca's camera. She seems to like taking photos like that. (Noticed this since Serene's birthday!)

My mushroom and chicken macaroni. I have a tendency to order mushroomy stuff because I love mushrooms! Gah, next time I'll need people to share it with me. Eating the whole plate by myself always leaves me feeling queasy.
Serene and Ming En's chicken lasagne. The two silly girls insisted that this plate of lasagne looked uglier than the other. -_-

Rebecca's salad.

Dessert was waffles with banana and peach slices.It was a very short gathering. Hope that future gatherings will be longer okay. *whines*

Anyway, I went to Chinatown Point to waste my time away...

and saw these...

I thought I find these chairs quite familiar leh. Have I seen them before?

Totally adorable and irresistable (oh, I resisted from buying it anyway) Hello Kitty Mahjong set. The Hello Kitty shop was having a sale, but the prices are still very high. The reason being, the items should be directly imported from Japan. The handphone accessories (with shiny big beads hanging around~) are very pretty! Awww.

So many reasons for me to get rich. Hmmmm...

My Undergraduate Days #21 (First week of school.)

What the hell. I signed up for Reason and Persuasion, a philosophy module. It was stated clearly that there is a lecture every Monday from 4pm to 6pm. And in my first lecture, our lecturer said there is yet another lecture on Friday morning, and this is not even mentioned in IVLE? Okay fine, they have a module blog. Cool. Big deal.

When everyone is still using the old friendly IVLE to check their daily school stuffs, this module has to try to be funny to use a blog to communicate with students. Think it's quite an unsuccessful attempt to be unconventional. And back to the extra Friday morning lecture, the same three words again- what the hell. I do have social work tutorials on Friday mornings, so am I supposed to skip lecture proper and watch the stupid webcast? Anyway, I like lecture proper more than webcast.

On the other hand, my social work modules have been very interesting and entertaining so far. Gender was quite okay, with Dr Choo as my lecturer again. Alright, I fell asleep in the first lecture. Well done eh?

Counselling lecture was wonderful! Dr Lee is really charismatic and has a ever-smiley face. Two therapies/ theories are going to be covered- Person-Centred and Cognitive-Behavioral. Compared to jumping from therapies to therapies, we're going to go indepth and understand how we can make use of the therapies with different client groups. Yay! The expectations of us seem to be quite high. Otherwise, this module is a marvelous module so far.

Mental Health was pretty okay. No additional comments about it yet.

Advanced placement seminar is led by Ms Nair! (Yay, I have a good reason to take a picture with her at the end of the semester!) She's my idol in the department, and the first person to have inspired me in the social work field. Wah seh, I am so happy can!

P/S: The ''social work'' circle is really really very small.

Last free day before school officially starts for me.

Mum has been very active- learning line-dancing, flower arranging, singing, etc. Wahahahahaa, I'm so proud of her. Here's her and her pot of flowers. The pot is ours actually.

Just now, I went to take a look at her line-dancing practice. She's dancing as if there's no one looking (haa, familiar line eh?). I joined in for two of the dances. Was basically dancing like an idiot because I am no dancing guru. Some of the ladies danced very well. Wish I have their flexible bodies.

Went for some simple exercises by myself. I jogged around my neighbourhood and felt pain in my ankle. Mum suggested that my injury is not totally healed. I am going to see the sinseh next week. Anyway, believing that my lethargy is a result of a lack of exercise, I have exercised twice this week and I feel so high after my exercise! I rewarded myself with Ribena! Shiok!

Seems ike drama-ing is making me losing my blogging mood. I feel weird as I am typing this.

-_-

Yep, I am watching Goong (finally), all thanks to Shang May.

To Julia: Instead of being fascinated with the budding love between the prince and the princess in the drama, I am quite attracted to take pity on the princess (who appears to be cheerful despite feeling sad and lonely) and 律君 (who looks oh-so-sad whenever the princess is sad). Luckily I am not quite sucked into the drama because I feel that it's totally impossible for two guys to fall in love with a girl at the same time. That's just too fairy tale.

My Undergraduate Days #20 (Semester 6 and Advanced Placement.)

I haven't talked much about my advanced placement. I might not have mentioned before, but my greatest fear is to face older adults and death. With faith in myself, I decided to challenge my own myth about myself. Thus, I have decided to try out the older adults field.

I am starting work tomorrow and I hope this placement will be a fulfilling one. Really looking forward to it.

I feel good about myself, because I can talk with more confidence now, as compared in the past. This semester shall be a super fulfilling one. I will study hard. Perhaps I am starting to fear about graduation (about now studying). Afterall, responsibilities will increase wholesale once I step into the working world.

Honestly, I feel rather weird not taking German in school anymore. I have been taking it for 5 consecutive semesters and for my last semester, I am not taking it. It seems like a waste.

I keep asking myself if the Daf Test is what I really want for myself. Throughout the whole journey of german-learning, I am pretty happy with the effort I put into my learning and the satisfaction that I have gained out of these two and a half years. Does taking that Daf Test make any difference to the satisfaction and joy that I've enjoyed so far? Probably not.

My point is, taking or not taking the Daf Test might not my priority, because what I want out of the learning is not just a certificate. Oh well, this is something for me to think about for the next few months. Sigh.

P/S: I will try to read a german book soon.

Elayne's birthday dinner.

This woman is Elayne.She's finally 2* years old! We went to the very first place where we met out of school term- Essential Brew.We got to sit at the spot where we sat last year! (Was it last year?)

It was a recommendation by Elayne and we both had our first loves there. Insiders' joke, haha. There are definitely a lot of memories we had together there- our gatherings, and even Ying Fong's birthday celebration. "I AM FOREVER 19, I TELL YOU!"

I still remember that we promised to go to Germany together when we have saved enough money. Looking at the deadline that we have set for ourselves, we're only three years away from our dream trip! That's like wow, amazing can? I thought we'll never make it, because afterall it is highly possible that our dream trip will be cancelled due to personal commitments or whatever possible reasons.

When Xinli's back from Germany, as suggested by Elayne, we shall go eat traditional Chinese food, zi-ca, or steamboat together eh? Think about it. When we do eat traditional Chinese food with our Chinese friends? SELDOM! Haha, I am really looking forward to that!

The woman, with her small presents from us.As I forgot to hand the card that I prepared earlier to Ying Fong, she had to bring the card into the toilet to write her well-wishes. It was quite funny- the way I shoved the card to her under the table and then winked at her. Haha. (Hope the woman did not notice!)
We left and went strolling around and guess what?! We sinned! Elayne treated us to Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Fondue. She wants us to grow fat lor. -_-

Sinful ah sinful~

Everytime we meet, Elayne will always make sure that she's a good trainer (muscles) and also, a good teacher. Thanks woman, for the treat. Will treat you back when I start work!
Ahh, I love my beauties. :)

Drama-ing.

Meetings were cancelled due to a lot of unforeseen circumstances. Thus, I am lazing around at home again. Shiok ah!

Recently, I have been burning stuff and watching dramas. I am so preoccupied with doing my personal stuffs that I cannot find time and energy to blog properly. For the very first time in my life, I felt like I was neglecting my dear Blog (should I give it a gender? haha).

Anyway, my blogging mood is recovering slowly as I take more pictures, because with more pictures, blogging is made much more interesting. :D

Anyway two dramas that I've been fascinated about recently.

1) 恋爱女王

I find myself quite similar to 张景涵 in certain ways. Haa, interesting.

The ending theme song, 梁山伯与茱丽叶 is nice and catchy. Overheard Shang May humming it while we were out. :P

Decided to share the following video below because it's hilarious. If you're planning to watch it, make sure to watch the whole video! Enjoy! :D

2) 金枝欲孽 (War And Beauty)

Off for more episodes! WOO!

What is the Queen up to these days?

Our dear Queen, Cindy does not have the mood to blog or read or write. She has been rather busy burning (as in writing pictures, music and documents into writable cds) stuff, catching up with her friends, and lazing around at home.

Yesterday, she has just met the NTU Ambassador and Shang May. Tomorrow, she's meeting her Wildflowers. The day after tomorrow, she's seeing her attachment colleagues. Lastly, the day after the day after tomorrow (Please pardon my lousy English, the Queen has always been asking me to practise German instead of English), she's meeting her darling Beauty. And on Monday, our almighty Queen is going back to school!

The following semester is going to be a hiong one for our Queen. She's going to take four Social Work modules- Advanced Practice in Social Work, Mental Health and Illness, Counselling Process and Skills, and Gender Issues in Social Work Practice. In addition, she claims that she is very philosophical (Alamak, who believes that? She's taking that because she needs to fulfil university requirements lor), thus she bidded for Reason and Persuasion, an arts gem under Philosophy.

She's not continuing her German Language modules because the lecture timing clashed with two of her major modules. I guess, she doesn't really have any other choices now because she has been accomodating to German Language timings since her first semester in NUS. She has to clear her major modules in order to fulfil university requirements and to graduate properly eh? Oh well, but she has decided to revise German now and then (which is a tough task).

I got to go soon. The Queen said, she'll post the pictures she took these days soon. Very soon. :)

Mystic Arabia.

I went back to school to hand up my advanced placement forms and to help Julia borrow an economics book. We then headed to Bugis to meet Shang May to get my Goong VCDs and also to catch up and try some supposed-to-be-delicious desserts in Arab street. Along our way there, we saw exotic and old buildings and started to take photos of them like how tourists do. Haha.
A famous mosque in Arab street. Julia said it's a symbol of Arab street? *scratch head*
Both Julia and Shang May love the lazy atmosphere there. :)Julia happened to chance upon a blog which recommended the desserts at Arab street, so she strongly encouraged us to try. I, having a bad memory and thus have forgotten about my wonderful experience of drinking my first Turkish coffee, was okay to her suggestion.

We ordered these:

A very Walls-y Bananasplit, Yemeni pudding and Muhalalabia (?). The main ingredients for the Egyptians desserts are milk, rose water and spices.
You never know what lies beneath... (a layer of unknown spice)

Anyway, Shang May, the 'incense' part is quite funny.

Usually I'll recommend stuffs, but from now on, I'll make sure to state that it's my personal preference and that not all might appreciate the same things that I like. I wouldn't want anybody else to end up like me. :(

Along the way to the MRT station, we saw Raffles Hotel which I seldom get to see... And we snapped again! Hahahaha, I am tired.

P/S: Headed for my first tuition lesson and felt very restless. Wahliew, I am only 21 years old leh. How come I feel like an old woman?

Who says aunties are boring?

Days before, mum told me that she's going out with her old old friend on New Year's Day. I didn't want to tag along originally because her friend is going to give us a treat and I simply feel paiseh for tagging along (which will seem like I am going for the food only). However, her friend was very persuasive and I've decided to go yesterday. I will treat them next time!

My day started off with a very nice meal in a Japanese restaurant. The ramen was very delicious- soup was said to be brewed for two days and the mee was great. The sashimi was oh-my-god-ly delicious, especially the salmon slices. Thick, tender, and fresh. (Pardon my lack of vocabulary in describing the food.) The wonderfully yummy-licious meal ended with a tomato sponge cake (very soft!), green tea icecream, and a caramel and custard pudding. The meal was so yummy that I thought, it's worth to grow fat from it! :D

And I thought, they're going to shop around and then go home. I didn't expect them to shop the whole day! Their legs are much stronger than mine- they were browsing at clothes while I felt like surrendering myself. But I had my share of fun browsing at the pretty clothings and the pretty discounts being offered.

I cannot withstand comfortable tanktops, thus I bought another one (bought an off-white one a few days back) in another colour and another pair of jeans for only 30+ bucks. I hope it's as lasting as my Giodano one. In another shop, I saw a really nice jacket and bought it (again!).

We had a tea break in between (woah, feel like a tai-tai),

wahahahahahahhaaa, I am a satisfied girl.

Dinner was on my mum. We went for Thai Cuisine. I thought we ate quite little as compared to lunch.

Throughout the meals we had, the modern tai tais talked about their kids and their lives. I was actually listening to them while they thought I was bored by their conversations. Generally, kids (us) seem to have similar bad habits and similar attitudes. Isn't that interesting?

Also, it is rather challenging to be mums these days due to the different way that our mums were being brought up. What I mean is, children today (us) are very much different from the children of the past (our parents). When they try to apply the parenting methods that were used by their parents to bring us up, they often hit the wall because we don't find their methods reasonable (to them, the methods are reasonable).

So, as children, we should try to understand why and how our parents came up with their parenting methods, and try to see things from their point of view instead of just rejecting their parenting methods. I think if all of us think in such a way, there will be lesser parent-child conflicts.

The following text is written by me two years ago when I was still a fresh undergraduate. I was really pretty upset about some happenings and wrote a whole chunk in my organiser. This is probably the right time to show it since I am blogging about parenting. Please take it with a pinch of salt because this is written (as I said) two years ago, and the way I communicate myself through words might be different from today.

"The duty of parents is to nurture us, educate us and provide us with food and all daily necessities. If a parent does not do it, he or she is not considered a parent at all. Children with such parents are similar to children without any parents. To parents who really take care of their children, always trying their best to give their children the best that they could give, it is really heart-wrenching to see your children turning their backs against you, ignoring you, feeling that you're simply a burden. This, I conclude, is the child's fault.

Parents put all their time and effort in us, hoping that we can grow up to be a good person and undeniably to take care of them too. However, we should not look at this issue in an economical perspective. We are all humans. As some always say, humans have feelings. Bringing us up, from infants to (for example, me) half a grown-up. Do you think it's very easy? They need to change our diapers, feed us, buy us toys when we make noises and clean up the mess that we made, and the list goes on.

Children should never turn their backs against their parents. And when they do, parents will not be angry. Instead, they will be sad.

They always seem happy and strong, never worth our attention because they seem okay overall. But do you know of the aches that your mum suffers from all the housework that she's been doing? You might say, "don't do lor". But think about it, why does your mum do housework. They do it in order to maintain the home, not for the thrill of it.

Do you ever realise the hardships that your parents face? Do you really stand by them when they're in trouble, just like how they stand by you when you need support? No? It's either you can't be bothered to find out, or you just simply don't know because they would not like to keep you bothered. And why are they doing the things they're doing? Because they love you."

The text does not have a proper flow. I jumped from point to point because I was thinking and writing at the same time. Although it is written by a 19 year old brat, the text is filled with her honest thoughts. Hopefully, this text will help in providing a different insight about our parents. :)

May all be blessed for the new year.

I hope that the new year will be a happy and smooth-sailing one...

and I shall continue to strive for health and beauty, and to love myself more. I will also continue to enjoy the strolls before I learn how to fly. Lastly, I will resist from giving in to madness. :)

And here goes a very big and pretty photo of mine, taken by Jane.

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Pretty right, haha. I love it a lot. :D