As the stars fall down and the heavens fade, this girl is begging wait for me.

Forever OT days whenever I'm meeting my pals for dinner LOL. Finally headed to ABC Brickworks hawker center for dinner with JJ, and had this delicious plate of horfun and fried noodles! And I finally satisfied my sugarcane craving :D

Did I mention that the sugarcane that they sell near my workplace is expensive? LOL, I never once buy sugarcane there cause the soya milk is much cheaper. I like soya milk with grass jelly too, but sometimes I just crave for sugarcane T.T Sighs. But recently, I found this fruit juice stall that sells amazing juice too! Banana milkshake and papaya milkshake, my loves! 

 Also recently, I had a biannual meetup with the JC kids! (: So excited to see them because even though we seldom meet/chat online, but I love it when we update each other on our lives whenever we meet! 

(Chicken Katsu Don)

The friends went up to Ichiban Sushi first to wait for me because I was late (as usual). I cannot finish my work on time sighs. This internship is taking a toll on me. On a side note, the katsu taste amazing!!

(Hojicha Ice Cream)

Afterwards, we headed to Matchaya for desserts. We ordered the Hojicha Ice Cream and I love it! We gossiped a lot over desserts and wah, I 'learnt' a lot of things LOL. So many things happened yet I wasn't aware of it. HAHAHA.

(My JC pals)

Thanks Weina, Amanda and Moehan for the great meetup. You guys are really my best takeaway from JC! 

We used to watch the sun go down
On the boats in the water
That's sorta how I feel right now
And Goodbye's so much harder
Cause we were happy

Leaves have fallen to the ground, and now there's no one else around to hear the cry.

SMU Local Exchange

I am super blessed this semester. I finally fulfilled my dream by getting the opportunity to embark on a local exchange. :D

(Mandatory shot)

Thanks Michael for the photo.

I still remember my first day at SMU clearly. I walked into the wrong class and sat there for quite long, until the Professor started his lesson and I sensed that something was wrong. LOL, it doesn't sound like the course that I registered for?! After checking with my table mates, I hurried out to find the correct classroom. Super embarrassing!

In a blink of an eye, I have graduated from SMU. Received my results last month and geez, I must say that the school is very competitive. Hmm, but no regrets because beyond grades (thankgawd my grades are on a pass/fail basis), I really enjoyed myself there. The teachers, the friends, and the environment are all very different from NUS. And I understand now why my NUS professor decided to go back SMU to teach!

SMU only have seminars, unlike the lecture-tutorial style over at NUS. The seminars lasted as long as 3h 15mins, and sometimes the professors even overshot. However, I haven't dozed off once during lessons. LOL, unfortunately yes, I slept a lot during classes at NUS. It was more participative in SMU (which also explains the competitiveness and my grades), but I'm glad that it trained me to speak up more.

(Matchy matchy with Fatiha)

The first friend that I made in SMU! Also the friend who crazily loves pink like me. LOL! Coincidentally, we took 2 modules together (out of my 3 modules in SMU). So I see her practically on all the days I head to SMU. Thanks for being so friendly and being my aunt agony, and for bringing me around to explore SMU - we headed to the IT center, the SMU Labs, the Li Ka Shing library and the law library. (:

(Pizza Party Part 1)

On the last day of lessons, Professor Roh from my COMM302 Psychology of Strategic Communications class, decided to host a pizza party! I like Pizzahut, but I only grabbed a slice of pizza and a drumlet because I paiseh to take more LOL! I like Professor Roh, he is like some fatherly figure who always take care of students' needs. I had a consultation with him once for my individual assignment, and he chatted with me for quite a bit. A simple consultation ended up to be 30 minutes long hahaha. The best part? He actually remembers my name and my identity as a NUS student! He was telling me that it was 'fate' that we met, because he was meant to teach at NUS, but eventually chose SMU instead. Just nice my consultation slot was an hour before the last lesson, so he was saying how he really enjoy teaching our classes, and he also asked me about my career aspirations and all. He ended with wishing me the best of luck. I was teary-eyed by the time I left his office omg.

(Fatiha, Professor Roh and me)

Nobody tell me that my hair is super messy LOL. But I wanted to say that this module was super hard to score? I aced all the other components, but class participation was worth 20% and I flunked that and ended up with a super bad grade T.T

(Pizza Party Part 2)

On the same day, during my night class, Professor Clarence from my COMM360 Investor Relations class, also decided to treat us to pizza, and it is from Pizzahut too. LOL omg, I had an overdose of pizza within a day luh T.T But no complains because free food hehe, and this time round I grabbed two slices of pizza instead. It tasted so delicious! Why SMU professors so nice!! I don't recall any of my NUS professors treating us to food, so I got culture shock once again hmmm....

(Moroccan groupmate, Zaineb)

My groupmate from Morocco! How cool is that hahaha, she is actually a Masters student and I found her a little initimidating initially. But nope, she doesn't bite and is quite friendly!

(Presenting in style with my Investor Relations groupmates)

Spot my professor in the photo! We are so cute! This is the first time that I was ever asked to theme for a presentation, and it feels superb because the dress code makes me feel a sense of identity to my group! (: Things we learn in psychology hehes. Our theme is black and white, but hahaha omg in the photo there seemed to be a visible line separating the white and black forces LOL.

Initially regretted this module 'Investor Relations' after the first lesson, but it ended up to be fine. LOL, I'm just thankful that I didn't fail anything because I went into the class with zero finance/investment knowledge, so I was legit just a blur sotong. Most of my classmates already have basics, so it really doubles my stress x.x

But I'm thankful to have these nice groupmates with me. Thanks for adopting me even though I'm a local exchange student, you guys are really the best! I miss all our late nights together sighs. Oh yeahs guys, in case you think 6-9pm classes at NUS are super late, try SMU's 7pm to 10pm classes. I was brain dead by the end of the lesson. LOL. But given the chance, I will retake this module again.

(This is how we roll)

(Before I burst out into laughter)

(And everyone was being stupidly funny and the photo was ruined)

Cheers to my Investor Relations teammates Max, Jaspreet, Jingwen, Adam and Zaineb for the wonferful times. Special mentions to the first three for tanking most of the project, and for talking nonsense with me everything during lessons so at least I would not fall asleep. (:

(Crisis Communications)

COMM246 Crisis communications is never a module I thought that I would enjoy. I actually wanted to take it because I think it will be useful, yet I want to avoid taking in NUS under a particular professor. As a last resort, I applied for the course in SMU and thankfully I got it! (:

(This is pretty candid)

And yes, we coordinated our clothes for the presentation as well! Why on Earth do we choose green? Hahaha that's the color of our client company. #dedicated LOL. I really, really enjoyed myself with this bunch of kids. We suffered so much together, but also grew so much together. Thanks for being my motivation to attend lessons even though I'm on exchange LOL. P. S. I didn't skip any lessons because my professor Augustine Pang, together with my groupmates, definitely made the lessons so much more interesting!! 

How I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl.
Year after year, running over the same ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.

These streets, these lights make you feel a little more, miss a little more.

Week 7 Internship

The only thing that I was looking forward to this entire week is Hari Raya holiday HAHAHA. Sighs, I was super unmotivated to do work on Thursday, because the entire world was not around. T.T I actually have three other interns with me, but two of them went on a holiday and the other one decided to work from home. Sighs. I ended up having to lunch by myself, but it's okay because I got myself McGriddles and it made me happy. :D

(Ah Chew Desserts)

(Because Shaoyuan complained that my flatlay skills suck)

The good thing about working in Bugis area is that there are many food to eat - albeit expensive. LOL, I finally found a intern kaki who loves desserts as much as I do, so off we go to the instaworthy Ah Chew Desserts place after lunch. I was excited when I saw steamed milk in the menu (P.S. Hong Kong's Australian Dairy sells it. During our trip two years ago, Weina, Amanda and myself reported to the eatery almost everyday because it was just so good. LOL). No points for guessing who ordered what. Hehes!

Father's Day

It was also Father's Day this coming Sunday, but the dad wanted to celebrate in advance because he wanted to avoid the crowds. This meal was from last week - we went back to Chir Chir because we just cannot forgo the 50% discount deal. LOL, Bernice said she went back for both lunch and dinner. Who's worse?! Hahahas!

(Grapefruit Yogurt Smoothie)

Created a big wooha in the restaurant because I ordered an alcoholic drink but they served me non-alcoholic T.T And there's price dispute, because they were having promotions only for the booze geeez.... 

(Nest Snow)

Fried chicken tenders with cheese, cream sauce and mashed potato, topped with whipped cream, almonds and cranberries. It was absolutely suicidal as I was still nursing a sore throat LOL. 

(Honey Butter Chicken Tenders)

There is a familar taste to it. Hahaha, it really taste like the Korea's honey butter chips! It's quite lovely and I'm grateful that they serve chicken tenders instead because they are boneless yay! :D

Today I also have a very exciting news to share. I managed to get JJ Lin's concert tickets!! Woohoo omg! Amanda and I have been standing guard by the computer for the past few days but we didn't manage to get any tickets. Thankgawd a miracle happened and we managed to buy them on the last day! 😊

(24's my queue number, but Amanda got no. 2 instead! Yessss!)

But I have been spending way too much money these days. Arghs, the concert tickets, my travel plans and a little shopping. My bank account is still in a deficit despite me working for quite some time already. Zzz.

Hold fast to dreams,
for if dreams die,
life is a broken-winged bird
that cannot fly.

You are the architect of your own happiness.

June: the month of happiness.

I really love June because of all the promotions, it just makes me crazy and I constantly have the urge to shop and spend money. T.T But I need to stop - my pay is not even credited in yet!? 

(BOOST)

Last Saturday we decided to head to town to chill and relax after a long and hectic day. This long and hectic day story will be kept for the next post, LOL. I'm all about positivity today, so let's keep to it. So anyways, we were at Somerset, and you know the dining at town is always not a wise choice. But being the typical cheapskates, we managed to settle dinner for $10 per pax! :D

The next question, how? LOL we didn't go hungry or anything. In fact, we ate good food. LOL. I really love promotions HAHAHAHA. Piss, BOOST is having a discount, and their medium drinks cost only $3 now (you save $1.50), LOL! Cheap thrills, and I really like their drinks!

(Jjimdak)

Thanks to Bernice who told me about this 50% promotion deal, my family and I got to indulge in a plate of goodness! The Jjimdak (read: Korean braised chicken) that I had at Korea definitely wins Chir Chir hands down, but honestly speaking I like Chir Chir's version also! The queue was insane because the promotion is only valid for a few days, and I queued for close to 45 minutes even though I started at 7pm. T.T

(Cheese and Topoki)

Yums, I super super love the cheese! It was my first time at Chir Chir, but the food suits my palates! And thanks to the promotions, we paid only $25 for three pax, including GST and service charge. Cheap thrills again! :D Let me know if you know of other promotions! Sharing is caring! Hehes.

Tonight I'll hold what could be right
Tomorrow I'll pretend to find and
Put it all behind me
Wake up and find that I have finally found
A new life in my soul
And find that I know how to let you go

Love's a little messy and you are too.

Week 5 Internship

I think I have found my calling in life. I may be complaining a lot, but I really enjoy my job. I like the tasks that I'm doing right now, except that it is still too fast-paced. I'm still learning how to adapt. But yeahs, there were many things to do and it leaves me a headache almost everyday, and it doesn't help that I'm sick for the entire week and I'm on medicine so I'm constantly drowsy. And my supervisor loves giving me urgent tasks last minute which I really hate it a lot. But I guess this shall be the pre-empt to my working life? 😅 Positivity.

(Aloha Poke)

Backlog, backlog. So that day, I met Amanda for dinner after work and she had a craving for poke bowl. It was expensive but I relented and decided to splurge a little and indulge myself in this tasty bowl of goodness! (: Aloha Poke was not bad and the servings were fine, so I'm pretty happy that day.

(Bingsu)

So happy that we went for desserts and we were such direction idiots that even with Google maps, we were still lost. We simply could not find our way around to Nunsongyee. LOL, we ordered the cheesecake bingsu and I love it!

It was a good meetup where we just talk about anything and everything under the sun, like those good old times. Too bad university suck us dry, and even though we were studying in the same university, same faculty even, we seldom meetup during school time?! LOL. Sighs of adulting.

(Salted Egg Chicken)

On a separate occasion, I met up with Shi Wei for dinner at Chargrill Western! First time at the restaurant, and it feels good because I like checking out new eating places. The prices here are comparable to Astons, but I feel that Astons still win hands down LOL. So anyways, he ordered the Salted Egg chicken whilst I ordered their signature chargrilled chicken.

(Chargrilled Chicken)

Yes, I'm just typical. The food that I ordered also very typical LOL. And we ordered cheese fries also! As much as I love cheese fries, it really was fries overdose because we didn't realize that our main courses already came with fries. LOL. Okay, joke.

(Love dem cheese fries)

We walked around Northpoint City and grabbed Share Tea in the end cause I'm too thirsty. It was nice meeting him after five years LOLOL. Didn't thought I will be meeting him after JC ended, but I guess maturity comes with age and I learnt to cherish friendships more now.

(Hot pink balloon)

Phototaking with my sister's helium balloon which she received as a CCA farewell gift. Must make use of this phototaking opportunity LOL. The lighting sucks and I'm too lazy to do any post-processing so yup, here's the photo in its original state.

But here I am an open book
Turn the page it's all the rage
Get a look on the inside
Oh what you get is what you see
Baby you hold the key
To the diary of me

I'm poetry, complicated but simply stated.

McDonalds.

This is a weird topic as a blogpost, but I guess I ate too much Macs recently to even blog about it hahaha! :D I'm not a fan of fast food, but Macs is still my favourite of them all! I especially love their hotcakes with sausages, best complemented with iced milo. I recently tried the BBQ beef with egg burger as well, and I conclude that it is the nicest $5 value dollar meal in the entire menu.

(It looks damn fake in this advertisement LOL)

They launched the Hokkaido Salmon Burger recently too. It was highly raved, but it was to my disappointment. It just tasted ... average sighs. I was too excited to bite into the burger that I forgot to take a photo of it LOL. It costed me $8.30 with seaweed shaker fries. Well, at least the shaker fries taste nice. *comforts myself*

(Hokkaido Salmon Burger)

Currently, they are selling matcha ice cream. The price increased to $1.10 now, it sucks but I think the matcha flavor is not bad. It isn't fantastic but at least it wasn't sweet, and it was still the cheapest option so hahahaha! 

(Matcha Ice Cream)

Also two months back, Macs promoted their Fish and Fries and Sweet Chili Fish Burger. I thought it was quite interesting that Macs is selling fish and chips, so I went to get the meal to share it with the grandmother. Guess what?

(Expectations)

vs

(Reality)

Disclaimer: There are supposed to be two slices of fish and more fries. My grandmother ate the other portion. But still, it looks too pathetic for me to even pay $7.90 for it. LOL geeez. T.T Disappointing.

(Chocolate Pies)

(More chocolate pies)

Their chocolate pies were quite worth it though! I snagged it on the second day of launch, but I only managed to eat once?! I wanted to go for another round, but it was sold out totally and Macs never restocked them.... $1.40 is quite reasonable for the pie. It is also not very sweet, much to my liking!

These headlights they just wanna
fade off into the night.
But if they're half as stubborn as me
They'll just keep on shining bright.

Look forward with hope, not backwards with regret.

Take 3, Fight HPV Campaign

Really so much love for these babes! :D We have come so far together, having plenty of sleepless nights working our ass off for this 'Take 3, Fight HPV' campaign. Everything wouldn't be so successful without these dear ladies! :D

A few months back, I am still contemplating between writing a thesis and executing a campaign. I decided to go ahead with the campaign despite the various objections. Is it worth it? I would answer yes without hesitation or regret. I really feel a sense of pride and satisfaction seeing our campaign takes flight, especially so when people around me, be it friends, acquaintances or even strangers, walking up to us and telling us that it was a job well done. They really like our collaterals and campaign, and it was their words that kept us going.

(The Three Musketeers)

We initially started out as a team of five, which comprises Evelyn, Belle, Bernice, Cassandra and myself. We planned for a campaign under the the supervision of Prof Aaron for a module. Last December, we made the decision to also execute the campaign. Sadly, Evelyn and Belle were unable to join us for they had graduated, so we continued the implementation as a trio.

After we settled most of the administrative procedures with the school, we approached our partner organisation again for a discussion. Much to our surprise, they decided not to fund us. It came as a shock because we already planned the campaign using the budget they provided us. T.T This meant that we had to rework the campaign, this time with zero funding.

It was awesome that we managed to find our external source of funding eventually. We had to make a pitch and convince the organisers that our campaign is very meaningful such that they will be willing to fund us. It was a period of mental hell as we were stressing over the money matters. Thankfully everything went well in the end.

(Open Mic Session whereby we had to make a pitch)

Due to limited funds, we tried our best to get sponsorships as well. I was the person-in-charge for sponsorships, and to be honest, I felt quite lost when I didn't get any response from any company after the first round of sending sponsorship requests. I thought that I was so useless that no company bother replying me. However, this experience trained me to be tougher and also creatively search for different ways of approaching them to interest the different companies into funding my campaign.

(Off to collecting our sponsored goods)

Also because of the lack of funds, we did not want to hire any trucks to collect our sponsored products. We eventually decided to grab, and thankfully the grab driver was quite understanding and he even helped us with the moving of the goods! I am touched by the society's kindness really. Now that I think back, it was quite hilarious because we were so noob that we wanted to transport the goods down seven storeys ourselves (when we can actually ask for help - they have this crane-looking machinery that can help to transport LOL). I bet the entire company was laughing at our stupidity. LOLOL. You can read more of our story here.

(Bubbletea collateral)

We also launched our bubbletea collaterals in the midst of the campaign. We partnered with NUS Gongcha, as well as the various drink stall vendors across the campus. It was my favourite out of all the collaterals from our campaign. Hehes! :D I'm glad that it really reached out to so many students! Check out the above collage that I made - many of our friends posted on Instastory/sent the photos to us telling us that 'hey this is quite cool!' I sincerely hope that the campaign really achieved its objectives of raising awareness of what HPV is. :D

(Campaign)

We also did roadshows in NUS Utown and at various faculties. It was tiring having to stand there, distribute coffee/tea and talk to people for ~9 hours straight, but yet again it was rewarding to see many people being interested in our cause. Does this mean that our campaign is damn successful?? :D I also want to once again thank Amanda and Christel especially for helping out, even though it does not benefit y'all. LOL. 谢谢你们够朋友! ♥

(Random Blends Exhibition)

As part of our assignment, we had an exhibition as well to further showcase our campaign efforts and reach out to even more people. To entice people to come to our exhibition space, we decided to distribute free coffee and tea as well.

(Bernice interacting with some NUS students)

It was quite exhausting yet rewarding because we managed to attract huge crowds. We gave the remaining beverages to the cleaning uncles and aunties, and they kept thanking us profusely. It really touched our hearts.

(Filling the coffee in a recyclable mug)

After the campaign, we managed to get some collaboration requests. Unfortunately, Bernice and Cassandra will be graduating soon, so we were unable to accede to some of the opportunities (I don't think I can handle it myself LOL). I am very sorry. However, I still want to give thanks to all of them because the recognition that they had given us showed that our campaign was really quite successful. It was really an achievement unlocked. I walked out of my comfort zone, and even tried my hands at being an event organiser. It felt rewarding.

I am grateful to be given such an opportunity, and would like to thank everyone for being a part of this - my family and friends, my supervisor and the school staff, the sponsorship companies and the participants. :D I want to especially thank my campaign team mates, Bernice and Cassandra, for travelling down this path with me. We took the road less traveled by (there were not many people who organized such big-scale campaigns in school), but that has made all the difference.

When your heart stays out all night

but rises early in the morning.

Laughing, crying and good stories to

tell about how love tastes at

different hours.

In some people's lives, you are a ray of sunshine.

Happy belated birthday to my grandfather!

(Mango mousse cake)

I really love this cake. Great that both my grandfather and I share the same taste - mango cake. This means that I can eat my favourite cake during his birthday LOL!

Organised a birthday dinner celebration for my grandfather at Lao Beijing @ Novena. Lao Beijing is a restaurant chain under the Tunglok Group. Recently, I'm on this Tunglok craze LOLOL. Freak, ever since I tried their food (read: Lokkee), I had that sudden realization that Ding Tai Fung and Paradise Dynasty are just mediocre. LOL.

(Soup)

(Pork)

(Vegetables)

(Prawns)

(Mango Jelly)

(Crispy Skin Roast Duck)

We have appetizers, main course and desserts. But the highlight of the meal is obviously the 北京烤鸭! It is a quintessential dish in a Chinese meal. The duck is so expensive but the meat taste quite damn tender and juicy. I usually don't eat skins, but the skin of the duck is so crispy that it goes 'kiak kiak kiak' whenever I took a mouthful of it. LOL! Damn flavorful! I really love it!

Tunglok, you have done this right. Eventually I went to sign up for their membership LOL.

Go to bed everynight with a thankyou

and let go of the day so you can

welcome tomorrow with open arms

and appreciation of what is today.