3 days to 한국에 오신 것을 환영합니다 (welcome to korea) !

Hello Hello! Me is so super excited for Korea! My flight will be on 18th May 2013, 1:15am. And my poster day is on 17th May 2013. So everything will pass like a whirlwind and before I even realise it, I will be in the land of kimchi! Met with my travel mates, G and T, today for a brief trip planning for the first 3 days. I was so high that I kept going non-stop about what I found out about Korea. It is a bad habit of mine that I find it is so hard to kick. When I get too hyped up about a topic, I will forget to quieten down and listen to what the rest got to share too. This may pass off as too forceful and domineering to groupmates at times which is an image I hate to portray. And such may impede me from performing well in my future career too as I may just blabber on in class and become oblivious to students who have trouble catching up. I should be more aware of this from now on and friends do remind me too!

Found these 2 pics when I googled unhelpful teacher. hahahah. I think these 2 are the most common situations I experienced as a student. Hope I will not be like this when I teach next time!

15th May 2013

It's a wet day at Sentosa Adventure Cove Waterpark! The water theme park first opened its doors during the last quarter of 2012 and has since been in operation daily from 10am-6pm. It is located at RWS, opp of USS and 200m behind S.E.A Aquarium. The ticket costs $29 which comes with 15% food discount voucher which can be used anywhere in the waterpark. Personally, I felt that the ticket is very decently priced considering that one of the features, Rainbow Reef, involves snorkelling. This alone makes adventure cove all the more unique and worth the visit!

Rainbow Reef

Picture credits to littledayout.com

This is my favourite of all activities at the waterpark! I was so excited to try it that I insisted that it shall be the first stop of my adventure! There are more than 20,000 fishes in the big water tank with more than 15 different species (in fact I think there are a lot more). Most of the fishes are angelfish. TRUST ME. Once is not enough. If time allows, do go for it a second time! There will be new surprises hiding at various corners of the reef. While most are natural coral reefs, there are artificial reefs too. However, it is definitely not obvious to a non-marine life expert like me. Do listen to the instructions at the beginning to avoid gulping unnecessary amount of salted (mixed with fish waste and fish food) water. Yes it happened to me but I still enjoyed the experience thoroughly! There are also panels of glasses around the tank that allow you view the beautiful fishes while relaxing on bean bag couch available at several spots around the waterpark.

Water Slides: Dueling Racer, Pipeline Plunge, Riptide Rocket, Spiral Washout, Tidal Twister, Whirlpool Washout

I must say the rides were a little disappointing as they are not as thrilling as I thought they would be. Also, most rides are too short and end too sudden. Out of the 6 rides, the one and only exciting one was Riptide Rocket which involved 3 U-shapes in the course! And it was during the process of queuing up for this ride that some thick-skinned and uncourteous queue-cutters nearly spoilt my day. Despite telling them politely to queue up as there were many people behind who patiently waited too, they ignored me and went straight ahead to the front. I was totally fuming inside but frankly speaking there was nothing I could do anymore. Quoting love, "let this be the only shortcut they can take in their life". Indeed. 

Unhappiness aside, I suggest that you guys should try out the other 5 rides before going for this. For me, I went on the riptide rocket first and later on found the rest of the rides much less exciting. At times, when out of a sudden you are turned 180 degrees, facing backwards in the middle of the ride, giddiness will overpower all the thrill you may feel. I experienced that in 2 of the rides. Other than feeling giddy at the end of the ride, I did not know what happened during the course at all. One thing I knew was that they were not that exciting anyway therefore I did not bother going for a second time.

Adventure River

Tubes are free for use at all entrances to the adventure river. This river is longer than any lazy river I tried before. Spanning 620m in length, it offers as many as 14 different habitats for you to experience as you float through with the current. One of it includes an underwater tunnel which showcase quite a few marine life species! You will be able to see stingrays too! I think I was so hungry and all I could think of when I saw them was sambal stingray. Don't judge me please. hahaha

Bluewater Bay

The wave pool! We did not exactly try it cause the depth was simply too shallow to let us be freely pushed around by the waves. The wave pool at Sunway Lagoon KL was much deeper. At bluewater bay, our feet were able to touch the floor the whole time and we were just standing there like rocks while the kids around us were having fun screaming and shouting as the waves hit them. Nevertheless, you could enjoy the waves too as long as you sit on your tube. We were just too lazy to get on it :{

Fun for Kids: Seahorse Hideaway, Big Bucket Treehouse

The seahorse hideaway was simply a baby pool with deckchairs surrounding the area. The big bucket treehouse (as shown above) features a playground with a slide suitable for kids. The slide looks quite fun actually from the picture. If you all buay paiseh can try and tell me if its indeed fun! hehe

Though we were warned that the rides would be suspended soon due to lightning detection, we went ahead as love and I would be out of town soon. The ticket is available for 2 weeks from the date of purchase! So if you are warned about bad weather on the day of visit, you may choose to return again any day within 2 weeks if you have already bought the tickets. Actually, I wished that there was stronger and brighter sun that day. But I guess I should already be feeling lucky that the rain did not pour down afterall despite the grey skies throughout the day. There was suspension of rides on and off yet we still managed to complete all the activities as there wasn't too many visitors. 

Major love: The shower facilities. 1. It is clean and dry. 2. They had rain shower head. 3.There is hot water. I was so happy bathing that I totally don't wish to get out. Really very satisfied with it!

Tips:

1. Don't use the locker at the main entrance. Use the locker near to the Bay restaurant. That locker is more centralised thus easily accessible from whichever ride/activity. We frequently retrieved our phones to snap pictures thus it saved us a lot of energy and time walking to and fro. 

2. If you are heading there with only 1 or 2 friends, all of you should bring soft, unstructured bags so that everything can be squeezed into a small locker. Rental of small locker costs $10 while big locker costs $20. Big locker is really much bigger as can be seen from the picture below. You may use the locker for the entire day and may reopen as many times as you want. 

3. Bring some snacks in if you do not wish to spend too much at the waterpark. The only restaurant that I saw people dining at is the Bay restuarant. They serve western food at around $15 per main dish. There are also pushcarts selling snacks and small bites around the waterpark. There were pizzas selling at one of the pushcart which looks quite delicious. Pizzas are priced at $9 each and they seem to be slightly larger than pizza hut's personal pan pizza.

4. No need to carry big bottles of water. There are water coolers outside the washrooms and at certain other spots.

Lastly, pardon all my dark pictures. But as you call tell, there really wasn't much sunlight on the day of our visit, much to our disappointment. Oh wellssss...It's alright! I hope that you guys have a chance to visit Adventure Cove soon and I wish for the most beautiful weather on those days! ((:

The waste bins around the waterpark. Outside the waterpark's entrance there is one too and we saw a man spitting into the 'plastic only' wastebin. How does it look like a spittoon to him. :\

You can see funny rock structures all around. The most common is this sotong and 3-headed tortoise. Hmmmm...

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Happy Mother's Day!

Today was just like any usual Sunday where everyone is lazing around in the house. My sis and my brother-in-law were taiwan-bound since yesterday for a final holiday before my sis ends her maternity leave thus we had a family dinner last weekend to 'celebrate' in advance. Inverted commas cause there wasn't anything out of the ordinary that day; no cake, nothing fanciful. We had dinner at a zi char stall near our house; the zi char stall where we go to on typical weekend dinners. Maybe the only thing that made it seem like an occasion was that we ordered black pepper crabs. This is the simple Tan family. (:

As a traditional family, none of us is comfortable with showing love for each other openly. We would not shout 'happy mother's day!' and run to give our mum a tight embrace. Neither would we buy her flowers and attach a hand-written lovey dovey card with it. Instead, we would express our love in the form of gifts, meal treats and service in our everyday lives. For instance, if my mum was craving for a certain food, I would go and get it for her. Or if she needs me to do anything for her, I will try my best to help her with it. These may seem insignificant but I think every filial act, big or small, brings warmth to my mum's heart and the thought of this makes me happy and want to do it.

My mum is a woman with very traditional and rigid (imo) thinking. She felt that whatever she told her children to do, her children should simply accept and follow. And that there should be no room for argument. Sadly, there are one too many things I could not agree with her. Being a straightforward person, my mouth tends to act quicker than my mind. Everytime I talk back, a verbal battle unavoidably ensues. We said hurtful words, we had cold wars. But at the end of the day, either one of us will not be able to endure the silent treatment any longer and thus try her best to break the ice. This is simply because we know that we are bonded by blood, the attachment is always there. We still wants to chit-chat together, laugh together, share life with each other. Even though we share a mother-daughter relationship for nearly 23 years, I'm still learning the art of communicating with my mum. I am not saying that she's hard to handle. Just like chatting with a friend who hold very different views from you, as a talker, you will try to put across your opinions with tact while as a listener, you will put yourself in their shoes and understand their perspectives. And frankly speaking, I'm not good with these at all. I'm still trying my best to be the good daughter she yearns for.

To mum:
Though I may not be the ideal child in your eyes, the fault lies in you cause you're the one who made me! HAHAHAHH kidding I know my temper is bad. I know my attitude is atrocious, at times. But do remember that I still love you no matter what and I will take care of you for long long time. xoxo

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Chill when you can.

I think from now till the day I start work, I should go ahead and do all the things I wanna do, go to all places I wanna go. For instance, I have been wanting to visit sentosa, marine life park, aquarium, river safari, all the cafes, and many many more. But I guess all these can only be accomplished when I am back from my korea trip on 4th June. I really need to get down to planning for korea trip, pack my luggage and settle accomodation for vietnam too! So many things on mind but I'm glad that at least I'm done with my poster design, just left with printing and presentation day. :D

4th May 2013
A relaxing afternoon at Prive Cafe, finally! My friend, Neo, picked me up from novena and drove down to this cafe located at Keppel Bay. We were lost at first but google map saved the day! So for any of you who intend to drive there, you should be driving along the VivoCity side of the road and do take note not to turn in at keppel club. If you see a direction sign indicating keppel bay, it means that you have overshot. Turn in at KEPPEL BAY DRIVE.

Judging from the inaccessibility of the cafe and beautiful scenery, I was expecting a menu full of overpriced items initially.   Personally, I tend to associate inaccessible places with 'being exclusive'; they are only accessible by car and in Singapore, only people with a certain level of wealth/income own cars. Just like local private housing, they do not usually have bus stops or mrt stations near them. But Prive surprised me with a wallet-friendly menu, and the cakes were delicious!

We had a drink each and 2 cakes to share. Yes, the erdinger was mine and responsible driver Neo ordered a chocolate banana milkshake. Their cheesecake was average but the hazelnut praline tasted superb! Definitely gonna order it again the next time I visit Prive (:

I seriously got think I look good here. HAHA

My photography skills were not doing justice to the scenery I swear. The ambience was serene and chill, really a good hiding place for a laidback afternoon.

My OOTD. Loving how this nude pointed kitten heels from Charles and Keith make my calves look smaller than usual. hehe

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Just have to keep trying.

So.... yesterday I failed my practical driving test. To be frank, I somehow expected it. The night before the test, I felt exactly the same as I did the night before my Plant Biology paper in Yr 3 Sem 1. I cried so badly in the wee hours before the morning paper cause I didnt't feel confident about it at all, like I was not even sure if I am able to pass the paper. In the end, I paid 50$ to visit a doctor to get mc for the paper the next day. I attempted the paper a year later and scored a B+ for it! I know it's not that a super fantastic grade but simply sitting for the paper and conquering my fear was enough to make me feel so proud of myself.

HAHA!

Back to yesterday, I was so nervous from the moment I woke up that I had stomachaches. I could not even perform well during the lesson before the test.When I was sitting in the room waiting for my tester, my heart was so flustered that it could not even decide how to react. For a moment it could be palpitating so hard that it felt like it was going to break out of my ribcage and another moment it could turn all numb and weak. I was simply paralysed by fear and anxiety. Being so overwhelmed with emotions, I knew that it was impossible for me to do well at all. The results eventually turned out to be exactly what I expected, or maybe worse.

Although I'm feeling very demoralised by the test results, I decided that I should not just stop here after gathering advice from various friends. Whatever is the case, be it continuing with private lesson or signing up with school, I am just gonna keep trying till I get it right!

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Torturous yet satisfying journey 2

Time to share more on Project axe 15! So in March/April 2011, I went on a strict diet and exercise regime. I guess when you really want to transform into a slender barbie or sexy betty boop you just had to made these sacrifices.

EXERCISES

The inertia was great but it gets better. To motivate myself, I bought new sports bra, running shorts and the Nike+ running app on iPhone app store which could map the distance I ran, calculate the speed and calories burnt. When money is spent you would try your best to not let them go to waste right? :D I bought the app at S$3.50 but I think it is cheaper now. The app is really great and I have been using it since then for all my runs. On days that I ate more, I would push myself harder to hit my target calories to be burnt. If you already had a target distance in mind, they would count down the distance left and encourage you to push on. At the end of each run, there is also a commentator who would give you words of encouragement such as "great job! you ran longer distance than last week!". I mean seriously, no one had praised me for running more or encourage me to run longer distance/faster before. hahaha Maybe just my sec 1 PE teacher cause I'm close to failing for NAPFA 2.4km run. Sighhh

Nike+ running application icon 

At that time, I started with 3.2km, progressively increasing the distance to 5km and eventually 10km. It is quite addictive actually when you are used to such active lifestyle. Nearing mid year, I was jogging 3-4 times per week and each run covered a distance of 10km. I would also take stairs to my unit on the 10th floor after running. Upon reaching home, I would also do some stretching and toning exercises on my yoga mat, leg raises and crunches included.

However, as much as it had become a regular routine for me, quitting was easy too. As soon as I started my summer attachment at my professor's lab, I found myself so tired at the end of the day and jogging was definitely the last thing on my head. So I signed up for Adidas King of the Road 2011 which was to place in August. I highly encourage everyone who is running to lose weight to do the same too! I mean if you really don't want to malu yourself on the race day, you will force youself to train harder right? Sign up with a partner! Preferably someone who jogs about the same speed as you so that you guys can encourage each other during the race to press on when either of you is thinking of giving up. The race distance was 16.8km which was just a bit more than my usual jogging distance so it was still manageable with a little challenge!

Before the race started there were 3 of us...

Just after 2 km there were only 2 of us left. hahaha. Cause both of us were urgently looking for a washroom and we just let our friend ran ahead first. 

At that time I think I still weighed about 63kg. But of course I did not stop my exercise routine right after the race. I continued jogging regularly till I dropped to 55kg and gradually cutting down the frequency after which. To say the truth, I am only jogging on a monthly basis ever since the beginning of this year. HAHA. BUT! To compensate the lack of physical activities, I have been watching my diet very closely! I guess I have been managing it well so far since there was no evident weight fluctuations. (:

I will share about my dieting little secrets so do check back soon!(: Here's a little comic to end off my post:

According to Health Promotion Board (HPB) standard, the healthy BMI range is 18.5-22.9. 

If you are currently facing weight issues like the 2011 me, let not procrastination and laziness hold you back from tackling it. Healthy weight helps you gain more confidence, feels better about your body and much less nua. I can attest to that! (^.^)v

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Yummies this way please.

2nd May 2013

It's the dimsum day! Insisted on an evening date at Swee Choon after my driving lesson and love happily (i think) agreed to it! I really love the custard buns at Swee Choon. I was craving for it so much the night before I just had to settle it asap. In my opinion, the custard buns at Victor's Kitchen was too custard-y to my liking. I felt like I was literally swallowing fats when consuming their custard buns. Sounds quite gross I know but I have no idea how to describe that texture -\(ツ)/-. Custard buns aside, there are still some dishes served at Victor's Kitchen that is better than Swee Choon's, such as their chee cheong fun.

My OOTD was Polka-dotted shoulder tie crop top from WoodWood and plain denim shorts.

Ordered the usual dishes. Photo didn't include the 阳春葱油拉面, 红油抄手，煎水饺 and 糯米鸡.

Me sucking in the oozing custard.

Unfortunately, the standard of the dishes that day was not as good as what we remembered them to be. The 炸排骨 and 阳春葱油拉面 were served lukewarm. 虾饺 wasn't fantastic too. The dough of 流沙包 was a little too thick to our liking but whatever they still tasted heavenly to me. hhahaha The rest of the dishes were just alright. However, I chose to believe we went on the day that the chef was not in his best of mood thus the dip in quality. Whenever I want to satisfy my custard buns craving Swee Choon will still be my first choice! Oh and I think they expanded? Saw a Swee Choon open air dining area at the corner of the row of shophouses.

3rd May 2013

Had a 2hr driving lesson in the morning then headed to The Roti Prata House for lunch with love. We were thinking very hard about good and affordable malay food places the night before and in the end love chose this place! Jalan Kayu was part of our consideration but it is rather pricey in our opinion.

It was a rainy day. Rainy days serve as good excuse for being lazy to dress up. 

We had chicken murtabak, maggie goreng and egg prata to share. The maggie goreng was rather salty but I like it for the right amount of dampness. The murtabak was really delicious with soft, shredded chieken in it. The roti was crispy too! We also ordered iced teh which tasted somewhat like thai iced tea but less sweet and YES I LOVE THAI ICED TEA. hahahha. On a side note, I am really missing thailand so much I hope I get to go at least this year end or jan 2014. ):  

Good food must share:

-Swee Choon

183/ 185/ 187/ 189/ 191 Jalan Besar. S(208882)

-The Roti Prata House

246M Upper Thomson Rd. S(574370)  [Same side as Salted Caramel and Udders]

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The torturous yet satisfying journey.

Had bad cramps this afternoon so I simply slept it away and feeling quite awake now. Since I cant seem to fall asleep, I shall share about my slimming journey 2 years back. But before that, I need to set things straight. I still do not fit the 'slim', 'skinny' sort of adjectives at this very moment. I just slimmed down to what I deem as healthy/ok for me and tried to maintain that till now.

Ever since I graduated from JC, I had been gaining weight steadily without realising. It only started to get obvious when my parents just would not stop nagging about my extraordinary appetite and figure. However, being the 吃软不吃硬 kind of person, the more my parents tried to incite me with demeaning words (like telling me I'm super fat in my face), the more I refused to watch my weight. When I was in uni yr 2, I think my weight actually hit 70 at some point of time.

The above 2 pics were taken in 2008 post-As trip to Bintan with the VJTT girls. 

Now I look at them I think I could be potentially over 70 kg. >.< The second pic with my side view is so painful to look at. My waist could have been what? 40 inches?

Random picture. Think the unnies were making me do funny hairstyles. 

Look at my scary fat face and arms.

Another pic of me stuffing my face with curry fishballs at  HK roadside in May 2010. 

I guess I really didn't give a damn about my image at that time. T.T

Another random pic taken in 2010. How can one's face be so round?!

Sorry if the above pictures hurt your eyes. But as much as they are memories too painful to recall, they still serve as good reminder for me. Especially for the times when I lose self-control of my diet. Actually I did not know what struck me so hard that I finally woke up my idea and decided to slim down. What I know is that I really do not want to return to that state again. hahahha. Too much troubles as a full-of-chubs girl. 

1. Whatever I wear can't conceal my fats. Forever not comfortable in my going-out clothes. Only felt comfy in baggy, preggy-looking clothes.

2. Too lazy to do anything.

3. When I sit down I felt like my boobies were resting on my belly. I'M SERIOUS. It felt damn awkward and horrible. 

4. At times the underwire of my bras  are strangling me so hard it's so super painful. Alright maybe I should have bought bras with longer band butttttt....ok la maybe I was in denial. hahahahhaha

5. Every piece of clothing I wore seems to be attempting to leave an indelible mark on me. My bottoms, my undies, my bra....hurts.. very...bad D:

So in march/april of 2011, I embarked on project axe 15kg. I never had such great determination in my life, thus far. My slimming technique was a combination of exercises and dieting. Yes, there's no way to escape committing to either one. It was tough but I found my motivation to keep me going till I reach my ideal weight. Shall share more in my next post!(:

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