Happy Chinese New Year!

Before you know it, time passes by in the blink of an eye. It's already 初三 of the Lunar New Year of the Snake. It's pretty shiok to have holidays for four days in a row. It's been a very very wet Chinese New Year. Almost everyday it's been raining. And it's not just slight drizzle, but 倾盆大雨. Best thing to do is stay home and sleep. Of course we can't sleep the whole day. Plenty of nice movies shown on TV.

On 除夕 I went over to Dear's place and we watched Ah Boys To Men again lol. Then we had steamboat lunch with Dear's family too. First time tried vegetarian steamboat. No meat but still ok lol. Healthier also. Of course not as tasty but still something interesting to try out. Evening time I went home to grab car to fetch Dear and family down to Golden Mile for them to take their coach to KL. Bye Dear =(...

On 初一, it's a stay home day. Totally rained the whole day. No choice but to play games and watch TV lol. Was attempting to complete the game that cousin Eric introduced. More on this later.

On 初二, we had our CNY lunch gathering at Tung Lok Signatures at VivoCity. Our families are getting bigger and bigger. Holy shit just look at the number of people in the picture.

Our newest member in the family is Yumi Ko, the daughter of Junfei and Xinru. What a unique name eh? Can be mistaken for a Japanese lol.

On 初三, it's more of playing games the whole day. Continuing from the top of the post... If you've played Dungeon Master back in the 90s, this game will make you feel like you're playing the sequel or something. This game called Legend of Grimrock looks and plays exactly like DM. The only difference is better graphics and placing of items on the floor is more flexible whereas in DM it's only at an exact location within the tile. Come to think of it, I've never completed DM, but I actually did it today lol, with the help of walkthroughs though LOL. I just finished the ending sequence right at 12 midnight just now. Finally can wash my hands off this game. Haven't been playing such scary games for a long time. Scary cos you never know when the creature will jump out of the corner and just be hiding at a corner while you walk into it.

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JCS Gets A Facelift!

The place where I've studied for 1.5 years. And also been there several times to meet up with Dear after her lessons. It gets a complete makeover! From the super rundown place to this brand new, freshly-done and more professional image! Too bad I don't have any pictures of the old place. Otherwise it's really a Heaven versus Earth kinda comparison. Makes me feel like studying there again hehehe.

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Welcome to 2013!

Haven't been spending so much time fiddling around with PhotoShop and Blogger. Just managed to change to a new skin for my blog, and before that, edited some pictures to end off 2012. Here it is. It's a collage of 16 different pictures taken at different times in 2012. Just suddenly thought of this idea. It's uploaded to FB as well.

Happy 2013!

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The End Is Also The Beginning

And what do you know? Before you know it, in the blink of an eye, it's the end of 2012. But that also signifies the beginning of a new year, 2013! It's amazing how things have changed within a span of a year. How all the great stories happened throughout this eventful year. From the Euro, to the US Presidential Elections, to Hurricane Sandy, to more localized news like all the sex scandals and stuff. Of course not forgetting the most influential YouTube video of all time which surpassed 1 billion views not too long ago, as well as the supposed end of the world on 21 Nov 2012. All these events have affected every single human on Earth in one way or another.

So how the year been for everyone? For myself, it sure is another eventful year. I can remember that I had 3 jobs last year, and this year, quite an improvement - down to 2. LOL... Nothing much eventful besides a change of job and phone - iPhone 4 to Samsung Galaxy S3. Well... I wasn't given a choice, since my iPhone 4 gave up on me and decided to stop displaying anything on its screen. It could still work perfectly fine - picking up calls, even playing songs etc, as long as I know where to tap, without any display on the screen. Took almost two months for me to retrieve my iPhone 4 from this handphone repair shop at Sim Lim Square. This guy kept procrastinating and assured that the next few days he will be able to repair my phone, but according to my memory, it took me up to 8 to 10 calls and he still couldn't deliver. Hence enough is enough, and I collected my phone by hook or by crook two days ago. It's still unusable, but at least I know I won't let him hold onto my phone over the new year. What a bad experience. The least he could do is tell me he can't do it, and not to hold onto my phone for so long.

Change is certainly not a bad thing. At least that's what I realized after I got my Samsung Galaxy S3. Even after my i4 died, I was reluctant to change to a new phone, thinking that it could be repaired. Hence it could be partly my fault that I allowed the repair guy to keep procrastinating. I didn't want to change to a new phone, specifically an Android phone. Neither did I want to get the iPhone 5, since it isn't really much different from an i4. Even till the day when I was queuing up at the Singtel shop at VivoCity, I was still undecided between the two. I didn't really researched much on the S3, nor even wanted to learn much about Android phones, as I was an Apple "fan" ever since I got my i3. I even waited almost two years to get my hands on the i3 and didn't want to get a new phone over my previous phone, the Sony Ericsson K700i. Holy cow, it's still in my drawer! (Just took it out and couldn't find it's model, so had to google it.)

I never really paid any attention to any Android phones. So I never knew how good or bad they were. Ever since I got my hands on the S3, I also wasn't very enthusiastic about using it. It's my Dear who was happily playing around with it lol. What stopped me from getting the S3 was also because I couldn't use all the apps that I was using on the i4, like the Japanese apps, some games, etc. Worse was the S3 doesn't even have any default Japanese input option. That really put me off. Luckily Dear found out that installing certain apps could produce the same effect of having the Japanese input on the iPhones, and even predictive text. So in no time, I was pretty used to using it already. In fact, I honestly think that the S3 is really much more useful and has more functionality than the Apple phones. Best of all, all you have to do to transfer any media onto it is just like any thumbdrive or harddisk, just plug and play. iTunes is really a headache and waste of time.

What has this post become an iPhone vs Samsung phone article? LOL

This IS the last post for the year 2012. 2013 will be an even better year definitely. 明年会更好!

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Time for a Movie Review!

Haven't been watching much shows lately. But this movie is rather disappointing. I loved the LotR series so I was really looking forward to this show. Luckily Nut had free tickets for us and therefore Dear and I went to catch this show together at GV @ Marina Square. It's Nut's company event for free movie screening, complete with popcorns and soft drinks. How cool is that?

This movie is made up of several mini-movies. An almost three hour show, broken up into mini scenes. There's a scene of Bilbo Baggins, the Hobbit, being made a fool by the thirteen dwarves when they took over his house and created havoc. Then there's a scene of all of them fighting with some mountain trolls. Then there's the part where everyone has been waiting for. Bilbo encounters Gollum, and they play a riddle game. Not much of the show really sinks into my mind. But there is one part whereby Bilbo applied what Gandalf taught him, to spare Gollum's life, which is rather meaningful.

It's really a show for LotR fans. Not much can be said about the plot. Of course it's unfair to compare this to the LotR series. But on an individual level, the movie still does not live up to my expectations. 3/5 stars.

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Ah Liang and Charlene's Wedding Lunch At ONE°15 Marina Club

Ok I hardly post anything about wedding lunches and dinners I've been to recently (cos all more or less the same lol). Nolah in fact it's because I've never been to this place at ONE Degree 15 Marina Club at Sentosa Cove for wedding lunch/dinner before so I'm definitely gonna snap lotsa pix at this beautiful place.

Ah Liang and Charlene must have spent lotsa effort and $ too to prepare their wedding lunch at such a place. Even the invitation card was specially prepared with something that looks like a boarding ticket to a plane. In fact it's one of the biggest wedding invitation card I've ever received. So kiasu for what? LOL... The view at the ballroom area was indeed quite a magnificent sight to behold. Plenty of yachts and boats berthed right in front of us, with rows of atas houses in the background. You might think you are in Miami or Hawaii or something.

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Tiong Bahru Bakery

Food hunt! Don't you just love hunting for good food in little Singapore? It may be small, but the wonderful array of food you can find is simply astounding. After the wedding lunch, I went to look for Dear who just finished her JLPT N5 exam at the PSB Academy at Tiong Bahru. We went to look for her auntie who works at the Umeya stall at Tiong Bahru Plaza for a while before we decided to head down to Tiong Bahru Market, which is just about 5-10 mins walk from TBP. where Dear wanted to try the Tiong Bahru Pau stall. She ate a char siew bao, her favourite. It costs 90 cents if I remember correctly.

Then we crossed the road and a short distance away was Tiong Bahru Bakery. I thought it was some old Chinese-style bakery but it's actually more like a cafe with atas breads and pastries. Dear wanted to try their croissants, so we ordered one and tried. OMG it was simply one of the best croissants we have ever tasted so far! Not exaggerating but it's really crispy skin but soft interior was really amazing. Just by looking at it you'll know it tastes really good. Who knows what the other breads will taste like? We bought croissants, chocolate ones, Vienna as well, for our family to try. The verdict? When we ate these breads early next morning, I feel that the croissant ain't that nice anymore. Well of course it's still best to eat it fresh from the oven.

The cafe itself can accommodate up to 30 people at best, I believe. Plain water is free-flow and self-service. Even jam is also free. Quite a nice and cozy place for a lazy Sunday morning. If it wasn't so out of the way, I think we would have gone there already, and quite often too.

56 Eng Hoon Street #01-70
Singapore 160056
8:00AM - 8:00PM Daily (Closed on Tuesdays)

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