Wednesday, January 30, 2013

My hair stories


No one cares who I am, people only care what's my hair color, where or how much did I dyed :)
Happens often. My friends and most of them are strangers, they would touch and "inspect" my hair. 
One unforgettable one when I was blonde- I went to immigration. When I entered, the securities were smiling, I thought I did something wrong and asked what happen. They said nothing. And when I left, one of the security said "Nice hair!" lol was quite surprised and funny to hear security said that as security stands in a strict position in my mind. They have no difference from policemen wa.


Monday, January 28, 2013

Popin' Cookin'

This is made by Japan which you can make and eat. 
I bought this in Singapore for S$11 if not mistaken. They have different kinds, got Donuts, Ice cream, Ramen etc. I bought the sushi set.



The powders and tools.

 
The tool for making the sushi.


The box has instructions in Japanese. It also has pictures, so for those who don't know Japanese can guess the instructions.
First, have to fill water.


Then put powder. Different powder in different slots because of the slot sizes and the shapes. 
When I pour the powder, the smell is very sweet. It made me wonder if it can be eaten. 
I can read Japanese *proud*, and it says Make and Eat!
But I didn't dare to eat. I did ate a little, it's sweet and it does feels like it's edible, but still, in sushi shapes, it's kinda weird. 


This is the rice.
The powders are sugar by the way.


One of the powders made this, the fish eggs. Amazing and cute!
When I touch it, the feel is like real eggs. Nice to eat too. 


The complete sushi set.
It's fun and amazing seriously. 
Those are made from powders of sugar, can you imagine? The creation of the content made the powders to have different effects after mixing with the water. 

It's fun to play. Can have a try if you guys get to buy this. 

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Ah Yen's Acar

Ah Yen is my grandma. She makes the best acar, the yummiest and cleanest acar, I'm not bluffing. A lot of people order from her, but she cannot promise if she can make it or not, since we have a big family and family is first priority ^^

Chinese New Year is coming, so a lot of families are busy making New Year foods.

Since last year, I'm interested in making the festival foods with my grandma. I've made dumpling, tang yuan and now acar. She really makes good dumpling, acar etc etc that's why I wanna learn from her. Also helping her at the same time because making acar requires A LOT of work, and she doesn't have a maid. Seriously, I cannot imagine how long she's gonna finish doing the acar with one pair of hands. That's the reason why acar is expensive.


How good she is? Even reporter also want to interview her. But she rejected. First, accepting the interview means photos are taken, so going to the salon to have hair-do is troublesome for her. Second, she thinks the reporter will disturb her progress of making the foods. "Jin ma huan (hokkien)" she said. 

Then I realised every time I help her, making all these different foods for every Chinese festival, she has to remember what each family member likes to eat. For example, my uncle dislikes peanuts, so she will not peanut for some dumplings. My aunt likes lap cheong, so she will add lap cheong for another set of dumpling. Some members are vegetarian, so the ingredients are different. It really takes A LOT of work for just preparing the ingredients. I really 佩服 my grandma. My No. 1 idol

No one will ever know how tough these works are until we really experience ourselves. We need to wash and cut 100 kg of cucumber! She said last year she bought 400 kg wtf And there are more ingredients to make. I can't imagine she can tahan and been doing all these for....50 years? And never stop a year.

Then my grandma will always story her history. All are very interesting like how we ended up in red I.C. because back then, Chinese are afraid they cannot go back China, so they wrote Place of Birth in China instead of Brunei. 
Then how they escaped from the wars. How the Indonesians burnt their houses. How they lived before electricity is invented. How people pooped in buckets. Then I'll feel how lucky we are to be born in a high technology world. 

She's a humorous and interesting grandma. 

Luckily this week I only have one lecture, so I've been helping my grandma, and gonna help her whenever I'm free. 
Kinda busy these weeks as I have a part time job, and I need to fried seaweed for Chinese New Year too.
Then need to beautify my whole body before Chinese New Year >< and clean up my room.
And need to attend a friend's wedding. 


Full of prayer sticks.

Excited for Chinese New Year :D

Monday, January 21, 2013

What my Little Brother said 2

My brother was packing his school bag.

He said, "Wah, 很多书!好彩我的bag 是 made in Japan, 不是 made in China." (Wah, a lot of books! Lucky my bag is made in Japan and not made in China.)

Friday, January 18, 2013

My hobby is working part time


I was working on my part time job and now taking a break for a while, else my hand and fingers are gonna break. I always enjoy working on my part time. 

I started to earn side income when I was 13. I experienced a lot of part time and never stop working until last year because I had my internship for 6 months and another 6 months I was really busy in uni. 

Sometimes my friends would ask me what I'm busy about? And they would tell me they have financial difficulties. I would recommend them to find a part time if their school works are not too heavy. I normally work for flexible jobs, and each job lasts for a short period. I don't really experience work stress yet because those are just mini and easy works, and it's my hobby to work part time, I'm always happy working

I don't really earn much because most of them are mini jobs, so I earn little by little. I have friends who earn more work for direct sales, tuition tutors or their expertise, for eg, photography. 

When I was in high school, at the age of 13 to 17, I sell stuffs to earn commission. My customers were all my school mates lol. I sold fashion accessories, valentine gifts and etc that I don't really remember. 
Then I sold pirated cds. I bought empty cds and friends would give me the list of songs they want. I seriously earned a lot from there as I have 2 loyal customers. One who always had singing competitions and need the Minus 1 version of songs; and another who always gave me a list of 20-40 music albums after I done burning each of them. 

When I was 17-19, I helped a friend to sell fashion clothes and earned by commission. Was kinda tough, and I was trying various ways to let people know that I was selling clothes. 

When I was 18-19, I worked in Baiduri Bank Card Centre. Then I realised I'm not an office person. They hired me because they need people to arrange their stuffs, so my work was kinda boring so I yawned a lot, and fell asleep a lot. There was one time I couldn't stand it anymore, I couldn't and didn't dare to sleep in the office, so I went to my car and nap for 10 min. Unfortunately, someone found me sleeping in the car lol Luckily, that was my friend. 

When I was 19 until now, I sometimes will receive work from an IT company. Then I work mostly using laptop or computer. I do most of my work at the clients' office, so I experienced quite a few working environments. 

When I was 22 which was last year, I worked in RBA as a clerk in Customer Relations Section. 

I sometimes work in fairs or events when the company is lack of people to work. I experienced working for GHK roadshow, body guard the Indonesian singers =.=", and a lot of more events.
I also helped a pregnant woman to take maternity photographs, of course pictures are not professional and I did tell her that I had no experience. 
I did direct sales

The worst experience was being a sales person. Those kind which you need to approach people, explain the details and sell to them. I met rude people. I met people who did not want to listen to me. When it comes to sales, I'm really suck in it. Somehow you need some thick face and fast moving brain to deal with clients. I need more training in this field. 

I always receive mini jobs whenever a company is lack people to work. Maybe for some of you, these may not consider part time but it's a part time for me doing all these works because I really put effort to do them. 
I appreciate all the experiences the bosses gave me, good and bad one. I'm glad that I have a little experiences in different kinds of work because I can work for everything. I learn from mistakes every time.


It's my hobby to work all these part time jobs and freelances. It relaxes my mind from long hours of studying and hectic course works.

If every thing goes smooth, I may manage an online boutique and work as a make up artist with qualified certificates as my part time ^^ Dreaming is the first step to success.

Monday, January 14, 2013

New Year Resolution


It's 2013 and I'm looking forward to Chinese New Year, and I'm getting older =.= I have to be optimistic to tell myself, "It's ok, those are just numbers." 

My new year resolution:

1. Don't do last minute revise and work! I wanna study earlier and able to sleep during exam period.

2. Enjoy last semester in Uni. Final year is stressful and I wanna enjoy it! I wanna enjoy the time being with my uni mates and hostel mates. I cannot imagine the day we are being separated and have different directions, some wanna complete Masters, some wanna work, some wanna do something else, I'll cry. 

3. Enjoy life more. I don't wanna let the sad, anger and stress to waste my time and put me down. I wanna be healthy and happy with positive energy. I wanna smile to stressful life :) Ganbatte kudasai!

4. To be a neater person. Sometimes I can put things anywhere and tidy up when things got really messy.

5. To learn new things. I love learning.

I think...that's it. Happy New Year! New year new life :D

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Where to VISIT in Singapore?

This post will be a bit touristy. I've been to Singapore few times, but never visit these places. Some are interesting and some are boring but worth experiencing :)

This is a hotel at Little India, Wanderlust. 
Was attracted by their interior so went in to kepo kepo.


Their interior isn't classy nor modern. It looks like their furniture are made by recycled stuffs, a bit antique and the whole interior design looks really cool. 


Look at that salon chair.


The reading area. The books are so cool but too bad, it's not free or for sale.
They have funny singlish books, books about the buildings at Little India, magazine about the theme hotels like theirs, etc.


Another antique salon chair.



The bar. 
They have a eating area/restaurant behind this bar. I heard from a friend that a lot of people chill at there at night, not sure is it the locals or tourists. But it's kinda merry at night. 




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Little India

There's not much to shop or see or do at Little India. The only interesting one is the 24hrs Mustsfa Shopping Centre I mentioned at my previous post. Basically, it's a small town with a lot of Indians and small shops selling mostly Indian things. 

You can see the name "Dickson" appear a lot at Little India, like Dickson restaurant, Dickson Road, etc.






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Forgot where is this. They were singing acapella. Came across quite a few singing groups singing at shopping centres or streets. 


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Universal Studio

Although this is the second time I go to Universal Studio, but surprisingly, I got new experiences during the visit. I played those thrill that I didn't get to play during the first time, and they also have the new section, Transformer. Click to read my first time at USS. 

It's not a good idea to go there during festive seasons or on a public holiday. You have to Q almost everywhere, but that's normal. But every Q takes at least 1 hour! 

FYI, if you wanna visit Universal Studio, it's better to buy the ticket online, or else you need to Q for hours there to buy a ticket. Better to buy earlier because they have limit tickets for a day, especially during the peak season. A ticket costs S$74.



The mummy.






It's real orange skin and the ice cream is quite nice. I don't really eat ice cream, but this is the kind I like. 


This is the Waterworld Show.


They really can entertain the audience and make the audience wet before the show starts. 


They are performing the story of a movie, Waterworld.




Played this. Doesn't look that scary but quite kik also.

  
This thing really freaked me out. Normally this ride is just like touring, but...


...it has a hidden slide!
We were laughing how this game is making money because they are selling raincoat with few very kik words "You will get wet. You may get soak". Really get wet de lo...but what's the fun wearing a raincoat and not get wet!


The Transformer section. 



Got really wet after the ride.


We were Q-ing for the Transformer 4D battle fight ride. Q-ed for about 2 bloody hours. When we thought it's almost there, WRONG! There is always another zig zag Q.
However, this is really worth the Q, the best ride ever in my life. We were sitting inside Evac's head and watched and felt him fighting. It's not the normal 4D. This can really make you feel and scream and make you close your eyes then you will realise it's all fake. 





Musical Waterfall at Sentosa


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After the fun at Universal Studio, we got ready to celebrate the X'mas!


First station: Clark Quay


It was really crowded and all the bars/pubs were full. We had to wait for people to leave and grab their seats. 


A cocktail is a must to high up ourselves to feel this festival!


 the sick-but-doesn't-look-sick Carol.




Next station we went to Zouk.


The cool stamp that only appear in the dark.



You know, it was all Indian men down there. The ratio of men to women is 30:1. My jaw almost dropped. How can a club lack of sexy girls!? I didn't realise until this trip that Singapore really got a lot of Indians, even during clubbing.
The music in Zouk really doesn't suit us, it's really just purely music like zz-doom zz-doom...

Then we went to the neighbour club, Phuture. They are better because at least we know the songs. At least when it comes to Gangnam Style people know how to dance. 


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We bought a package online like Social Deal for S$39 to ride the Duck Ride, visit Christmas Village and Gardens by the Bay

When the tour guide said "We will have 40 min land ride and 20 min water ride" I almost faint.

This is the transport that can be ride on land and on water.




It's a sightseeing tour to go around Singapore.This is Singapore Flyer.
At first I thought the package includes this Flyer, looking at how slow the Flyer turns really.....lucky it's not included. 


Couldn't take a good picture of this monument. This is built for the remembrance of those people who were killed during the Japanese invasion.


Marina Bay Sands.




Gardens by the Bay, a very nice infrastructure.  


The sealion.



After the tour we visited the Christmas Village.


It's not an interesting one, not much people and no music really make the environment looks really dead. Just can say "Good job at the effort".



The Santa Claus with leather shoes looking so sleepy there.







6D looks so interesting!


So we decided to experience the fun and...it's sucks. After riding the super fun Transformer ride which is only 4D, and got too much expectation on this 6D, it's really a disappointing one.
It doesn't have any water effect like 4D that you can really feel water splash onto your face, no nothing but just the movements of the chair. But it's really a mind blowing one like what the advert above says because the wind is really strong. So we only can feel mild movements of the chair and strong wind. x.x


We walked to visit the Garden by the Bay


Gardens sound boring, all I can think of is looking at flowers. 
But when you enter the Garden, there's no way that you can close your mouth. Really WOOOOOOW!
That's a 5 floor high of waterfall, it makes the environment cool cold and fresh. Awesome!





That's the walkway around the waterfall.








It's a wishing pond. I wished to earn a lot of money and become rich. Do not need to work after I married, just show my palm and ask for allowance ^^ 


Isn't this a nice place?



Urm what is this called? The inverted ice in the ice cave.





Another section of the Garden, also a stunning one. This section presents the trees. 
The air is really fresh.



At that area, they create the infrastructure in a way to reuse the energy. It's pretty environmental friendly.


Snowman made by flowers.



End of the trip :)

Some people asked me how much to bring for a Singapore trip. Here's mine during December. Things got more expensive in December: 

Duration: 5 days 4 nights
Air Return Ticket Brunei-Singapore-Brunei: S$361.00
Hotel                                                         : S$180.00
Universal Studio                                         : S$ 74.00
Duck Ride+Gardens by the Bay+X'mas Vill: S$39.00
Foods                                                        : S$125.00
Transport                                                   : S$ 30.00 (most MRT rides are S$1+, I have few taxi rides too)
Total: S$809.00 not including my shopping expenses.

How much is sufficient it's all depend on what you spend on. If you are going to buy branded stuffs, S$2000 is not enough. I brought S$1000 for transport, foods and shopping and there are still few hundreds left.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun everytime I travel. I always kinda afraid that there will be arguments between friends during traveling because I had an awful Kota Kinabalu trip years back.

It was all because of a stupid and selfish travel mate who insisted she will be blacklisted if the apartment has more than 6 people.
Who wants to blacklist you for this small case, they just wan to earn money that's why the hotels want you to get one more room saying it's over the limit. duuuh....
And no one will check apartment by apartment everyday counting how many people is staying there. Afterall we only have 8 people.
If anything happen, I told her that I'm willing to pay any charge or penalty. But she was still being stupid.
Until she went and asked my high school teacher's opinion =.=" she then believed that it's alright to have 2 more people wtf (because this was the second trip, the first trip we had 15 people in an apartment) 

On the last day in KK, our flight was in the evening but she wanted us (3 people) to leave in the early morning because she was afraid the agent would find out the number of people staying there. =.="
We carrying our big luggage, where can we go!!??? Lucky my parents were at KK too so we put our luggage in their hotel. What if I have no family there!?

If you're wondering why us 3 people and not others. Because we were the last to buy the air ticket so we were the last to confirm going to KK. And the apartment was under the stupid mate's name. She was making the whole trip unhappy and YUCK.

I don't like fighting with people so I was like stupid listening to her command only and swore that I will never travel with this kind of people again.

So having good travel team is important. Maybe go with those who know you well or have the same aim. Some people likes to use taxi, but people who are on budget would prefer MRT. So travel mates with the right 'click' are important to make the whole trip awesome.