what have I done in the past 4 years?

where do I go from here?

And some updates...

I have unofficially graduated!! :D

My FYP report was handed in about a week ago and I have been chillaxing and having a ball of time since then.

Here's our final report and my lovely team-mates for FYP together with my supervising prof (he's freaking tall!! haha). We had disagreements and we did quibble once in a while. But it was still an awesome time doing this one whole crazy project with them. I believe all of us have improved our Excel skills tremendously, all thanks to this FYP which required us to deal with a spreadsheet with almost 1,000 columns.

There is this wall in UTown where students can write down their random thoughts on what they wanna do before/after they graduate. I think it's a pretty cool idea and we read a lot of crazy things written by students who were probably trying to de-stress during the reading week. Here's some examples:

 This is on the "before graduating, I want to..." side:

 And this is on the "after graduating, I want to..." side:

How cliche to end school like this but oh wells, there's gotta be some kinda proof that I've survived four years of uni life. ;)

And what have I been doing lately? Eating of course! Hahaha

First there was Durian Fiesta at Goodwook Park. The full review can be found at Gladys' blog. I'm too lazy to type anything. Here's just a picture of what we ordered:

From top to bottom: Durian Mousse Cake, Durian Tartlet with Nuts, Durian Strudel and Durian Crepe
Personally, I liked the Durian Strudel the most as there's a good mix of the crispy pastry and the fragrant durian. Mmmmmm~

And then there was Mia's birthday celebration at Saveur. They opened a new branch in Far East Plaza! :)

Then I finally got to try Ampang Yong Tau Foo along East Coast Road with Gladys. Again I'm not going to review this place. ieatishootipost (and perhaps loads of other reviews out there) did a pretty neat job of that. I am really being lazy. Haha. So here's just a photo of the pretty babe with the food :) Oh I do like their sour plum drink a lot though. Not too sweet and not too sour.

And then there is this Singapore style hoptpot, JPOT, at Tampines 1 that I tried with Mia. Their menu is pretty standard but they have a high tea set for $9.80+. It comes with a soup base, choice of rice/instant noodle/vermicelli/laksa noodle/pho, vege, crab stick, luncheon meat, choice of marinated beef/pork/chicken, two small cheese sausages and two prawns (which were really fresh). Oh and a tiny amount of Enoki mushroom!

I chose the JPOT Superior broth as the soup base while Mia chose Silky Porridge, which I have never seen in other hotpot places. Personally, I'm not a fan of porridge but surprisingly when I tried it, it was quite tasty. The downside however, is that it'll get really goo-ey after a while and it probably sticks to the base of the pot as it tasted burnt. Yucks..
Both Mia and I love meat! And as you can get from the photo above, the amount of meat given in the set is barely enough and so we ordered another plate of marinated pork. :) We also tried this thing called fish noodle. The name was interesting and we had no idea what it was and so we ordered it. It's that whitish, triangular thing on the plate. Turns out, it was just fish paste filled in a plastic bag, with a small hole that the tip for us to squeeze the paste out into our hotpot and form long strands like noodles. =.=
There was nothing exceptional about its taste but I have to give it to the restaurant for coming up with such a creative way of selling fish paste. But we realised that the hole at the tip was too small and it took us too much effort to squeeze out every bit of the fish paste. And so, we ended up opening the originally tied-up end of the plastic bag, scooped the fish paste out using our spoon and plopped them into our soup base. We had fish balls instead of fish noodle. Haha.

Another new place that I tried was Brussels Sprouts at Big Splash @ East Coast Parkway. It's a Belgian bar and bistro with pretty good mussels. :)
Their mussels come in small metal pots and there's a variety of gravy/soup that you can choose from in which the mussels are cooked. I tried Mariniere (onion, parsley, butter, celery, white wine, cream) and In Blanc (same as Mariniere less the cream) and it was awesome! No photos though as it was late at night. They have some special package prices from 10pm-12am for two buckets of mussels. And the fries is free flow!! So boys can definitely have a full meal here. Haha. Unfortunately I didn't get to try their wine or beer as the guys that I went with have work the following day. I would probably visit the place again and try mussel with their Belgian beer. :3

Happy Mothers' Day

Finally went out for a family lunch together with le parents after a few months of serious mugging. Lunch was at Crystal Jade at Parkway Parade and the parents liked it (duh...Chinese food)

As Papa is going back to Shanghai on long-term basis this August, there is this feeling that every moment we spend together is precious and I kinda feel like the clock is ticking and there wouldn't be much time left. Now that I am finally done with my studies and free, we have decided that we shall dine out every weekend. And oh, there's so many nice places to try out there and I don't think there's enough time to try out everything before Papa flies back. :(

Oh wells, shall just make do with whatever time we have left together as a family. I can't really imagine how life will be like with just me and Mama after that...

Mothers' Day 2013 is almost over with about ... 10 min left. I have yet to wish Mama "Happy Mother's Day" nor said "I love you" to her. I just feel so unnatural trying to squeeze those words outta my mouth. :/

Things I Do When I'm Bored

With only a few days left till the end of my final year project (report is due on Monday and it's 99% done!), I am very much in a care-free and going-to-paradise state of mind. And since most of the time-consuming work (i.e. data churning, report writing/editing/formatting (argh! the agony of formatting!)) are already completed, I have loads of time right now to do ... nothing ;)

I'm no longer playing Facebook games and 9gag is getting boring. The standard of those Taiwanese variety shows that I usually watch (e.g. 康熙来了，大学生了没，姐妹淘心话) also seem to be dropping and I'm not really in a mood to start any novels yet.

While pointlessly browsing through the web, I found a couple of websites/articles that are rather amusing/interesting and I spent quite a bit of time deriving joy from those websites. Haha

1. The Pregnant Husband
This is a blog done by then Dad-to-be Jeffrey Bausch to document his wife's pregnancy through GIFs and provide some entertainment for her while her pregnancy hormones are acting up. Many of them are right on the point. Here're some examples:

As we approach the third trimester, whenever I ask my pregnant wife how she’s feeling. She's like:

When my pregnant wife wants to go to sleep and I’m not tired yet. She's like:

When we go out with another pregnant couple and both wives say that we can get drinks and that they'll drive home. We're like:

 

The moment my pregnant wife decides I'm taking too much room in the bed. She's like:

And this is my favourite:

How my 9 month pregnant wife is feeling these days. She's like:

2. Daddy Newbie

This is another blog done by Jeffrey Bausch. His wife has given birth to a baby boy and Daddy Newbie will be a collection of GIFs relating to his son and new journey into parenthood.

The rate at which we are going through diapers right now. It’s like:

When people get to hold our son for the first time. They're like:

When the maternity wing is over-filled with patients and my wife has to share a room with someone else, I'm like:

3. 猫に逢いに行こう (Let's go and meet the cats)

This is more for the cat lovers. It's a collection of photographs by photographer Fubirai who has spent five years documenting the lives of semi-wild cats that roam an island called Cat Heaven Island (such an apt name) in Fukuoka, Japan. The cats are fed by local fishermen and wander freely through the streets, boatyards, porches, and houses of the city.

4. 15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy

Many a times, we do things not because we genuinely wanted to but because we were subconsciously trying to fulfill others' expectations of us. And because others have imposed their expectations on us in a subtle manner, we failed to see that we can perhaps break out of the cycle and stop trying to fit into the mold that others think are befitting of us.  Many of the thing listed in this article are things that we do in order to fit into what society think is the social norm and some of them are really applicable to relationships:

- Give up your need to be always right

- Give up your need for control

- Give up the past 

- Give up attachment

This last point on attachment resonates strongly with me because I believe myself to be someone who is generally emotionally detached. I find this slightly unsettling because I kinda interpreted this conclusion as an inability/unwillingness to love. In fact, I always find the word 'love' too strong for my liking and I have never used it for anyone, not even my parents whom I know I dearly loved but never had the intention/courage to say it out loud to them.) And as I told my girlfriends, I am afraid to be attached to someone, because that would mean that I am increasing my reliance on that person, resulting in exposed vulnerability. And vulnerability is an issue that I do not know how to deal with yet. So I'd rather not put myself in a position of vulnerability in the first place. 

However, the author has a different take on the concept of attachment. Here's the excerpt from the article:

"This is a concept that, for most of us is so hard to grasp and I have to tell you that it was for me too, (it still is) but it’s not something impossible. You get better and better at with time and practice. The moment you detach yourself from all things, (and that doesn’t mean you give up your love for them – because love and attachment have nothing to do with one another,  attachment comes from a place of fear, while love… well, real love is pure, kind, and self less, where there is love there can’t be fear, and because of that, attachment and love cannot coexist) you become so peaceful, so tolerant, so kind, and so serene. You will get to a place where you will be able to understand all things without even trying. A state beyond words."

Confusing much? 

I'm trying to digest this as well. Meanwhile, I shall continue partying~ ;)

Nice Movies to Look Forward to

I still have final year project which will only end on 3 May. But I have already switched on my holiday mood and planning out activities for the next few weeks. Of course there's all those overseas trips but I'm looking at the movies that are releasing in May and here's my list of movies that's coming out in the next couple of months and I sure hope they won't disappoint me:

1. Iron Man 3
Trailer 1:

Trailer 2:

Need I say anything more about this movie? Just sit back relax and enjoy! *starry-eyed*

Opening: 26 April 2013

2. The Great Gatsby
Trailer 1:

Trailer 2:

Trailer 3:

Looks like a pretty awesome adaption from a great classic! And I'm also looking forward to the OST. Just looking at the trailers, there seem to be an abundance of good music in the movie from artistes like Lana Del Rey and Florence And The Machine. Really looking forward to this movie :))

Opening: 16 May 2013

3. Great Expectations

I have to admit I really enjoyed reading classic novels when I was young. Little women, Phantom of the Opera, Jane Eyre etc. And so, I saw this on the upcoming movies list and hope that the movie would bring out the essence of the novel (movies often fall short of expectation when they're an adaptation of books).

Opening: 30 May 2013

4. Man of Steel

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman! (I know this line is over-quoted but I just can't help it :P)
Well, another superhero story, which I never get tired of. :3

Opening: 13 June 2013

5. Despicable Me 2
Trailer 1:

Trailer 2:

You just can't get tired of those cute minions!! Even if their BA-BA-BA-NA-NA song has irritated the hell outta you last year when it first came out. ;)

Opening: 3 July 2013

And lastly, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire! It's only gonna come out on 21 November but I'm sure loads of people are looking forward to it with high anticipation.

Alright, I think that's enough for the night. Tada~