Before the school term started, and when Tian was still doing one of his short postings, we had the luxury of celebrating his birthday over a whole week! The week of celebrations included dinner with his family at Valentino on 25th July, followed by a lovely birthday lunch treat from me at Mimolette on his actual birthday. That week, we also went for our annual NDP (preview) date - it was our 5th NDP together! and finally his birthday week ended with an excursion with Nicky to the National Dog Walk 2008, which took place at West Coast Park. I know it's super belated...but never too late to blog right!

Tian's 24th birthday dinner with his family [25.07.08]

Ristorante Da Valentino is officially my favourite Italian restaurant in Singapore, used to be Il Lido a few years back but nah, Valentino is so cosy; the food, the people and the restaurant deco makes me feel like I'm back in Italy and reminded me of my wonderful days with Sonia. I think that was the main reason why I enjoyed my dinner experience at Valentino so much. Think posters of Ferrari and the Italian soccer team, display of Moka pots (the expresso maker) and waiters speaking the oh-so-familiar Italian words like prego, grazie and bon appetito!

Typical Italian appetizers, all of which Sonia had made for us in Eindhoven except the calamari which I had at Sonia's home, prepared by her super-chef mum!

My Squid Ink Spaghetti in Crabmeat Sauce! It was sooo good la. And Tian's brother's lobster pasta looked damn delicious too! 

Other than our pasta, we had pizza and beef to share too! Seriously, I'm totally in love with this restaurant and I told myself I have to bring Sonia here when she comes to Singapore. She can make friends with the chef and maybe become partners in business! haha 

His birthday lunch treat! [31.07.08]

We couldn't have our usual romantic dinner celebration that night because it was a Thursday and I had Idil's DR dance practice while he had a test the next day too so we decided to go out for lunch. I wasn't going to compromise on the romantic factor just cos it's in the afternoon aka not dark so I chose Mimolette, haha not exactly for the food but more for the quaint colonial house setting and European-like surroundings! Erm...by European-like surroundings I mean "big" fields, lots of greenery like a peaceful countryside plus the horse stables! Too bad we didn't see any horses grazing. 

I thought my salad was fantastic. For lunch, Mimolette only has a daily set menu so very easily, we chose our appetizers, main courses and desserts (with about 3-4 choices each) and because we were the only ones at the restaurant, we didn't have to wait very long for our food! The waitresses were very friendly to us too!

Outdoors is definitely more scenic but the Singaporean in us decided to sit indoors simply because it was just too hot that afternoon. The outdoor area of the restaurant, with the stylish white cushion chairs and low tables, is really pretty.

My juicy ribeye steak with ratatouille and ham slices! My first time trying the ratatouille, would not have known what it was if not for the Pixar movie! I liked it but Tian's not a fan. On the whole, the food was delicious and I think the portions were very reasonable, if not, generous I would say. We had a very full lunch.

 




The horse stables! But sadly we were not allowed to enter the premises of the riding club. Miss Europe, miss the horses, but I don't miss the horse shit. haha that can be really gross, yellow and smelly but I think Tian and I had fun avoiding the horse shit in the cities of Switzerland and Austria.

National Dog Walk 2008 @ West Coast Park [03.08.08]

=)

I was very very sad to find out that even the tickets that I got for the 2nd concert night is on level 3. I really wonder what my friends are going to see on freaking level 3. Really damn sad la, for the previous concert they sat right in front on the first level and I could still smile at Tian when I saw him in the audience while dancing on stage. Sadnesssssssssss. Why so screwed up this year. Trying to console myself that at least I've got tickets (I know there are some dancers who couldn't get tickets for both nights), just enough for friends who might not even be interested in dance at all yet they're still coming down to support me. Thanks a lot, pple. End of the day, we're all practising so hard just to perform our best to our friends and family. And of course to repay our choreographers' hardwork and kindness too. Since I'm performing in fewer items than most of my batch girls, I better buck up and work very hard for my 2 2/5 items. 

So sorry again for the very disgusting screwed-up seats, friends. :( Sadness.

Tired...dance prac ended at 11.20pm today and I treated myself to an expensive cab ride home because it was late and I was too wet and smelly I can't even stand myself and I just wanna get home to shower and change out into some clean clothes. Ok that was a lot of 'and's in the sentence.

Saw most of the bioengineers briefly for the first time in this year. Everyone still looks the same, that's a good thing. Li Quan looked like a million bucks, she's always looking so good everywhere she goes, be it school or town, and it makes me wonder how come I don't have such nice clothes and such style. My clothes are like boring and ugly, even though they're not exactly cheap. Maybe I'm really a very boring person, maybe I can't afford nice clothes too, but I think the main problem is that I'm not stylish at all, unlike people like Jamie too. I don't have enough things in my wardrobe to mix and match into a fantastic outfit. Sadness but it's ok...as long as Tian doesn't complain that I look ugly. Oh ya, finally saw Kristy and Shiyan too! Shiyan's back only a week ago! If I were her, I think I'll be having the Europe hang-over because the girl's been living in Germany for a whole year! Oh Kristy said I look different, not good or bad, just different. Maybe cos the last time she saw me in Eindhoven, I had makeup on. Today I was bare-faced. Or maybe cos I just threaded my eyebrows and the lady drew a bit for me. Hope it's not something bad. Oh ya I think Tryphena looks good in her new hairstyle! Did she rebond or straighten her hair also? If I remembered correctly it used to be curly and dyed so her old hair looked very dry. Think this time she dyed it all black also. Her hair texture looks much better now, think her new hair makes her look younger and more alive (shit my english totally sucks, I can't find the correct word to describe how I feel, my vocab is just too limited). Anyway it was nice to see all the girls and I really hope you guys will stay past 10.30pm for Brewerks on Thursday cos I wanna come! Shall cab down after dance prac. Hope they'll still be serving food.

Today Mich and I finally did 6 km, and we took almost 50 mins!!! I was so so slow, practically slow jogging when it was only the 8th round or so, was so tempted to stop at the 10th round but with Mich running with me I was more willing to push myself more. It was quite a drastic change from last week when we took about 28 mins for 4 km. So much slower this time. =( And to complete 10 km is like another 10 more rounds around the track, how the hell am I going to do that when I already felt like dying jogging 15 rounds. I think I was crazy when I signed up for the Nike+ run. Really siao. Next Tuesday is our 3rd and last practice session for the run on Sunday and we're going to go for 8 km. Or maybe we should try the whole 10 km. You know, I don't know how marathon runners do what they do but I know quite a few of them, like Phyllis, like Delicia, my very skinny ex-UROP post-grad. I also think my mum did marathons when she was much younger. There are a few trophies on the shelf. 42 freaking kilometres. And here I am struggling to complete 1/4 of it.  

A super random post. 

I love Monday!

Schedule for tomorrow, 19/08/08, Tuesday:

4pm: Jogging with Michelle

6pm-9pm: GEM2901 Lecture

6pm-8pm: 1st FYP Introductory Lecture

7.30pm-10.30pm: DR Dance Practice

I need to be at 3 places at one time. Not only tomorrow, on Wednesday too: 

6pm-8pm: 2nd FYP Introductory Lecture

6.30pm-10pm: DR Vetting

7pm-9pm: Squash Training. 

It's all stupid FYP lectures' fault. If they were held last week which was the original schedule, everything would be so much better. Arghh. So tomorrow I have decided to go for FYP lecture since it is the 1st lecture, and if it is deemed useless by me, I'd know what to choose for the rest of the week. =p So Mich, I have to pang sei you for a 2nd time, and leave you in Timothy's good company (HAHA!) for tomorrow's GEM2901 lecture. I'll also be half an hour late for Ahmad's DR prac tomorrow but that's not too bad I hope. I hope he'd recap last Saturday's blocking first.

As for the all important Wednesday, I'd have to skip FYP lecture and squash for DR vetting because that is the most important right now. Ahhhh really hope I won't screw up and at least look decent doing the dance items. Everyone's going to see all the items for the very first time...

On another note, happiness is getting all my first-choices for tutorial slots! Now I have a timetable that looks so good and compact, this is indeed my slack-est semester (in NUS) ever. Dunno when I'll actually start getting stressed over school, but now I'm really enjoying life, with extra-curricular activities every weekday night and today still got time to meet Tian for lunch at Anchorpoint before lecture (Yayyy) and (over)pampered myself with a mani&pedi before squash training. That almost cost me a 2-hr tuition session and I can totally imagine Li Quan and Chiew nagging at me for wasting money (and of cos Tian's also not too supportive of me spending my hard-earned money on such expensive luxury treatments that does not last long) so...I shall try my very best to stop going for mani/pedi for the rest of the semester!!! Good right!!! I shall be proud of myself for that even though it's just 3 months...=p Maybe I should extend it to the end of the year. 

Save money, save money, save money...for more clothes and bags and shoes and for next year! 

Dance, dance, dance. Freshly back from dance prac, still in my wet clothes stinking up my room. :) Loving dance, loving webcasts too! I have a webcast to watch for Living with Maths later tonight. But now I have to shower, before my dad nags at me again.

Stepping out just a minute past midnight,

I've never seen heat rise in the moonlight,

Ninety-nine point nine on the Fahrenheit,

Mercury on the rise: climbing; climbing.

Off the meter, off the meter,

We gonna shut it down We gonna burn it up

Off the meter, this night's a heater,

Catch the fever, so off the meter.

(The song is stuck in my head all the way on 154 from the Clementi bus stop till I reach home and now in my room it's still ringing in my head. I didn't realise I was recapping steps on the bus until I reach my stop. Shioks.)

... ... ... ...

Oh man. I thought I was already being hardworking to read the textbook before the first lecture for Principles of Econs tomorrow, till I take a peep at the forum and saw somebody actually posting a question about Chapter 3's practice quiz. !!!!!!! Chapter 3?!! Blardi hell I'm only at Chapter 2 and plan to stop there for tonight (actually I doubt I can finish reading it because it's already 12am and I'm still far from finishing AND lecture is at 10am tomorrow and I'm so not waking up at 8am just to finish Chapter 2 before lecture) but pple are already doing the online practice quiz for Chapter 3 which will not be taught until next week?!! No wonder I'm not a dean's lister, no wonder I'm probably at the bottom of my bioengin class of 70+. haha now I know, when I think I'm actually hardworking for once, I'm not. I'm just doing what an average student should be doing, such as reading the textbook before lectures. Haha actually after 3 years in NUS, I should know that by now. =p Silly me. Anyway like what my sister said when she saw me reading my text on the first day of school, I don't think I will last long. =p

Anyway I bumped into Li Quan in school today and it was nice killing time together briefly before her biophotonics lecture and before my dance prac. I sat in the empty lecture class with her while waiting for the other 20 bioengin pple to come for lecture. Li Quan was mainly updating me on the people whom I have not seen for a long time. I met Wan Sze for the first time after 8 months and we managed to chat briefly before more familiar faces appeared. I said "Hi!" to Victor! but his response wasn't that enthusiastic. =p Maybe he doesn't like me after our design project experience. Of course that was the only word exchanged. Li Quan and Yiren told me how I missed out lunch on Tuesday with the whole group of them so I wanna join next week! I totally forgot that you guys end lecture at 2pm la, nobody called me also. I'm so free on Tuesdays till 4pm (other than lab) so I shall make it a point to join you guys for lunch every week!

Michelle's Belated Bday Celebration [28.07.08]

I met the girls for dinner at Food for Thought where we bumped into fellow ex RJ-ian, Serene, who was working part-time there. I thought the food was very tasty but the portion is too small, perhaps cos it's more of a cafe than a restaurant. I definitely wanted more of my creamy pasta! Oh ya I liked my drink that Serene recommended too!

This was when we sang the birthday song for Michelle and if I remembered correctly the cafe people were singing together too so it was even more embarrassing for her HAHA.

The mysterious Red Velvet cake that makes you wonder what is in the red sponge part of the cake. I think Mich said pomegranate and coconut. I can't taste the coconut. But the texture of the sponge cake is like perfect and I also love the cream cheese frosting very much, it just completes the whole cake. It's so good and I swear it is addictive, Mich and I couldn't stop picking at the cake. =p I wanna go back to try the rest of their cakes! Oh ya I bumped into Jinyi at the cafe and we chatted a bit before I was called back by the girls for the cake. Then Mich and I saw Jinyi and his friend having this really sinful-looking chocolate cake and it looked really good. 

Here's Baorong feeding Baoxin some cake but Baoxin doesn't eat cheese! So she couldn't enjoy the Red Velvet cake!!! Tsk just like William, you guys don't know what you're missing! Cheese is so good and so important, and I think of Sonia now when I think of cheese. She's the one who taught me the different types of Italian cheese and most of the yummy food she made for us in Eindhoven and Italy involved cheese. Pecorino on slices of apples with the big green pea thingy or honey is still my favourite appetizer, then there's parmigiano, mozzarella, fontina (forgot how she used this cheese) and mascarpone for tiramisu. 

After dinner, Baorong drove us to Udders at Novena for their famous liqueur ice cream! Ok famous maybe only among the Novena/Thomson/Bishan people because the rest of us have never heard of this place. Also, they have a few board games here so you can stay here as long as you want enjoying your ice cream with board games. In the end we ordered 4 different liqueur-flavoured ice cream to share and the ice cream was so good that we forgot to play Taboo. (Of course another reason was that we had a special guest appearance, right Huiping? haha)

I had a great time with the girls that night. Shall wait for Baorong to finish her exams and then it's time to go out again!