date night :)

On friday night, maro and I decided to go watch the movie, Date Night, and of course, have our own while we were at it. We went to the newly opened mall at Millenia Walk, Parco Marina Bay, which was still pretty quiet though the entire mall concept was great! It reminded me very much of a typical Japanese departmental store (ahhh Shibuya malls ~) -- laid out neatly in open sections so you can see many stores and their wares all at a quick glance. I loved how refreshing that was but I suppose it's a bit of a walk from the nearby Marina Square haunt so maybe most people have just been too lazy to explore the place. I know if I hadn't been dragged there specifically for the ramen I probably would've waited for a perfect non-humid non-fatigued day (which may never arrive =_=) before going. Sooo...thank goodness I acted against feminist instincts and agreed to being dragged along?

Nantsutei なんつ亭

Parco Marina Bay

9 Raffles Boulevard

#P3-06 Parco Marina Bay, Millenia Walk

We went there specifically for this! It was sooooo tasty. :) Definitely didn't disappoint. Apparently it's got some special broth made from boiling the pork with garlic oil (can't recall the exact details) for days and days... whatever the case, it was good. I LOVE garlic anything so I ended up slurping up most of the broth. The noodles were well cooked -- had just the right amount of spring to them and weren't too soggy... comparable to Marutama Ramen at Central Mall :D which is one of the best I've eaten. Am no ramen expert though. Whatever tastes good to me ends up being labelled good.

Date Night was a great movie. Tina Fey and Steve Carell fit the bill of exasperated suburban parents perfectly. There were some really hilarious moments in the movie and it had a sweet ending (which I'm a total sucker for) so that wrapped it up nicely. Oh and JAMES FRANCO was in it too! Though he acted like a total (still charming) bum.

Saw this display set at a bookstore on one of the top floors. I totally want something like this for my house in the future so that I can put all my framed family photographs on display like this. I also bought the most gorgeous black bag from a store there (photos next time!) and there were lots of Japanese labels that I didn't have the chance to check out after the movie... looking forward to exploring the mall again soooon.

Ok I know this probably elicits a couple of mixed reactions ;p Shocked?? Alarmed?? Impressed?? Wondering what the hell it is?? Haha it's basically a glorified shaved ice topped with soft vanilla ice cream, covered with black sesame paste and sprinkled with condensed milk dessert from Azabu Sabo at Marina Square. NOT really my kind of dessert ><>

Maro's new Olympus EPL-1! :)) So happy for him that he finally managed to get a camera to use just in time for his trip to Europe. It's AWESOME finally seeing him pause after the food arrives to take out his camera and start shooting a couple of shots before digging in (because I do the exact same thing). Maybe now he'll finally stop giving me exasperated looks whenever I ask him to take photos for me?



3.5 weeks in Europe for him and then I'll be off for my own trip to the U.S. Won't be seeing him for another month and a half. :(( I really quite miss him already...but then again, this is the chance for me to do all the things I don't usually get the chance to do when he's around. ;D

5 more days 5 more days 5 more days till the last of my final exams and then it's the summer holidays for me. I just need to study for the next 5 days but it's so hard focusing especially in the afternoons >_< Have been suffering from a chronic lack of motivation for the past 2 years so this ain't new. But well, what's 5 more days? After that it's gonna be read read read/yoga/bake/photography/sleeeeeep/read/jog/take it easy for the rest of my holiday.

wish me luck!

oh, what a world this life would be ~~

Just some photos of the past couple of weeks (months, more like). :) Warning: this is REALLY a whole load of photos. I counted and there are exactly 20. HAHA what a perfect number eh?

Udders Cafe at Lorong Kilat.

I really like this outlet for a couple of reasons.

1. It serves some pretty darn incredible flavors like LYCHEE MARTINI and UMESHU (with liquer!) (but is soooo sweet and reminds me of my homestay in Japan when the hosts made bottles of umeshu for me to try...yumyumyum) and CHENDOL if I'm not wrong. I always end up sticking with the usual flavours though...some berry flavored one...

2. It's nice and quiet around the area at night so it's perfect for supper and a slow walk to digest all the ice cream after that.

3. It's in between my house and maro's :) one of the few places almost equidistant from our houses.

Oh, and did I mention that their ice cream bowls are in the shape of UDDERS? :) tres cute!!

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This year we actually had a neighbourhood Lo Hei session during Chinese New Year! Quite a fun experience I must say, though I was a little nervous about meeting a whole bunch of neighbours for the first time. We've been living at our current house for about a year and a half now (?) but ermmm I'm a terrible neighbour to have. I hardly know anyone around though my mum and sis somehow manage to keep in tune with the neighbourhood gossip. I just keep to myself and stick my ipod earphones deeper into my ears whenever I pass by anyone while jogging. ;p But the people who showed up were niceee... Lots of YOUNG KIDDIES though! My sis and I are easily the oldest in entire neighbourhood. All of them were about 10 and running around screaming and shouting and speaking in 10/12/14 year old speech that is so funny to listen to.

A million egg tarts are pretty much my idea of heaven (or at least one version).

Cute baby?? ;)

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Had lunch at Riders Cafe with my old friends a couple of weeks back. Actually skipped an afternoon lecture for that HURHUR but it's only because I had possession of my dad's car for that day and we HAD to make the most of it and Riders is sooo hard to get to by public transport! There's a looooong winding and tortous walk by foot from the main road all the way in (to protect the horses from us humans and our evil ways and huge ass cars of course) so it's nearly impossible to go to if not by car/taxi.

The food was REALLY GOOD. :) My absolute favorite was the crabmeat pasta with white wine sauce! It was one of the best pastas I'd ever had in my entire life. SERIOUSLY. There was so much crabmeat it was so great (I hate it when restaurants stinge on the ingredients for pasta!! Like spaghetti bolognaise with meatballs and in the end it comes out as spaghetti with tomato sauce and maybe... 1 meatball). You HAVE to try it if you ever make it there! :) The others...well not really that much to my liking. I can't quite remember what that melted cheese covered one is but I'm not a fan of cheese at all so...

We were lucky enough to get up close and personal with a horsie outside the cafe after lunch!! :DD haha i was sooooo excited. I love horses. I could just stroke that bit of their faces above their noses for ages and agesss (until they bite my hand off, that is). This one was such a beauty and so patient too! :) It had just come out of a shower, according to its keeper so it was all gleaming wet and musky.

The horse just kept BITING at my bag clasp!! What could I do but let him chew?! His one tooth was as big as my face....

Come back home with me horsieeee....~

My friend was hilarious. She pointed to it and was like, "THAT'S A FEMALE RIGHT??" when it was very very VERY obviously... a male.

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Last but not least, my first DIY in a loooong time. :) Saw something similar in a store the other night for like $20 ++ and decided why not make one myself eh? Definitely much cheaper. I really want to find a good beads store though that sells chains for a reasonable price. The one place I went to yesterday was such a rip off! $5.50 per yard of chain??? That'd be close to $20 for just a metre of chain! Whyy is it so hard to find good bead/chain stores here...

That's probably how I'll wear it this weekend :)

Sigh. Tomorrow I start my first hospital posting. I'm really NERVOUS. I know I should probably have slept 3 hours ago to get myself energized for the week ahead. I didn't really have a good rest this weekend what with family commitments (today I spent the entire afternoon at a granduncle and aunty's house making CURRY PUFFS haha. -__- me and the ELDERS.) and spending time with my friends out so I probably should've hit the sack a lot earlier. But I just wanted to do something for myself.

I shouldn’t be so pessimistic about things right? It may not be so bad a week. I’m just scared of a challenge because my brain’s too fried to handle anything major.

But, as Dan from Dan in Real Life says, “Prepared to be surprised”. It's the single best piece of advice I’ve heard in a long long time.

"Instead of telling our young people to plan ahead... we should tell them to plan to be surprised."

Let's see how this week goes then.

Sondre Lerche FTW!!

ha-ha-ha-haaallelujah!

Ohhmygosh I'm so tired. As I'm typing this now my head's just feeling all heavy and foggy and I really wanna crash into my pillows and not get up but what a waste of a free night for once eh?? Finished my final exams today!!!! Sooo relieved that it's over but it's only going to be another month until I have a practical exam and then it's the real vacation. Am gonna treasure this weekend like anything because it's going to be the only real break I have between now and starting to prepare for the practical exam. Bleaghh.

Just a little of what I did today:

(chambray top: Massimo Dutti, pants: Amisu, bag: mum's (bought in some random discounted goods market in Shanghai if i remember correctly hehehe XD)

(That was probably me going, "MUMMMEEEEE the lights have turned greeeeeeen!!")

(point form since my brain's pretty fried up!)

• had lunch with my mum for the first time in agessss. :D and we had really yummy minced meat/dumpling mini hot pot with meepok and meekia noodles at a random food court. sooooo tasty especially with the tomato ketchup. :) I'm definitely taking a photo the next time. I just realised how odd it is that one of the variations of minced meat/fishball noodles is mixing the noodles in tomato ketchup. I mean, where did they get that idea from???

• grocery shopping for drinks and snacks for my sister's junior college class gathering at night. i'm always my mum's camel. ALWAYS. =______=

• got stuck in terrible terrible traffic. but then again time passes a lot easier when you have a camera! :)

• picked up the most GARGANTUAN PIZZA from Pepperoni Pizzeria at Greenwood! I used to go there so often with my family for lunch for the most amazing pizza/pasta/salad deal but we haven't gone there in a long time... We ordered the giant 'family sized' pizza once before for a birthday party of mine and my jaw almost never got back to its original position upon seeing it but even now I'm still amazed at the SIZE of that monster. See the glasses in the background? those are your usual glass sizes and measure that against the diameter of that monster pizza. YEAHHH. ;9

Pinky being exactly where I wanna be right now. X)

Imma gonna have the best night of sleep i've had in a long time I think. Must've slept a grand total of 10 hours over the past 2 nights. Tomorrow I'm going to go for a little carnival at my old secondary school :D not too sure what to expect but i sure hope there're balloons, frosted icing cupcakes with sprinkles on the top... and pink cotton candy.

Now... maybe for a movie with my mum? Up In The Air or New York, I Love You? >

while it's raining outside

Feels like it's been too long. :p Finished an exam two weeks back and meant to get back to blogging after that but things have just been so busy lately. In another two weeks, it'll be my finals. *SCREAAMMMMM* I'm not too sure what I'm still doing online at the moment but it's sort of a break I decided to give myself for tonight. And for that, I'm determined to do some serioussss work tomorrow but in the meantime, here's what I've been up to:

(cardigan and skirt: urban outfitters, tank: bcbg max azria, scarf: ASOS.com, shoes: ecco (borrowed from sis), bag: mum's)

(how cool is it that this blazer has an inner lining with a print like that?? :D haha i love how unexpected that is!!)

(new vest from Topshop!! :DD i looove it so much. Just got it over the weekend and managed to make use of my sister's debit card to get 15% off! the only time ocbc ever has any promotions with worthy stores. The latest collection in Topshop is gorgeoussss... so much lovely peach/army green/subtle florals. i do wanna go back soon!)

Ramen with my mum. we both thought the stuff printed on the bottle was just HILARIOUS. "Spices C. I decided to live on my own away from my parents...The most difficult part was choosing the right place for me...It should face south and have a nice view". Say whaaaattt??? All this from a spice?

It occurred to me that though I spend most of my shopping time at Orchard Road, I've never actually taken any photos of the place...ever! :) It's nicest at night in my opinion. Many times recently that I've walked along the streets of Orchard at night, thinking that everything really does look very pretty amidst the lights.

Seriously nice plaid shirt I tried on at RockStar by Soon Lee at Cineleisure. unfortunately I do have monstrously broad shoulders in comparison to non-existent hips so.... with much sadness I had to place it back on the rack.

(Ice-cream uncle! I haven't eaten the ice cream sandwich in so long... love how the bread used is the colorful marbled sort)

I just discovered igoogle from a friend. Check out my sushi theme! XD

So, apart from going out occasionally and school, I've just been stuck at home trying to get on with revision (though most of the time I end up back on the computer). I've sort of come down with a severe obsession with shoes at the moment (as Annabel would definitely be able to attest XD). Jeffrey Campbell shoes are pure genius. More next time? Along with many many more photos that I've been accumulating in my camera! I don't really know where to start! :P I also borrowed Ms Congeniality from the video rental store just becaue I felt like watching something funny and Sandra Bullock is such a great actress/celebrity...worth respecting! Nothing better than seeing her kick that Benjamin Bratt's ass in the beauty pageant (oops, "scholarship program").

Oh gods I just checked the mirror and my right eye has a bloodshot line right across. GAHHH. Sleep, do your thing!

TWEETS and TUMBLES.

Hey y'all~~ X) Ahhh it's been awhile. I've been so swamped with schoolwork and preparations for yet another exam (story of my student life...ROAR!) hence the slow down in posting... I've been wanting to post for quite a few times these past couple of nights but i've always ended up trying to do other stuff or falling asleep LATE at night.

In the meantime, on pretty much a fantastic whim, I decided to set up a tumblr account. =DD Don't ask me why I decided to try it out when I don't even have time to regularly update this blog, but I dunno, I was attracted to the fact that it's so easy to use and I like the idea of shorter but more frequent updates. I love this blog too much to want to make it into a place where I mindless post stuff. Haha isn't it rather paradoxical, how when we put in effort into something we end up neglecting it because we only want to focus on it when there's more time to make it totally awesome but usually... there just isn't?? So we end up deflecting to these other easier and less mentally strenuous means of expressing ourselves.

Just a thought. ;p Any of you share the same view?

So here it is! (http://lynnchacha.tumblr.com)(super easy to remember)

The good thing about this is i've been UPDATING much MORE FREQUENTLY! :p like everyday since i set it up two days ago haha. Let's hope it continues this way!

I managed to add a 'comments' box so at least it won't just be a one way me-myself-and i thingamajig. :P I definitely prefer it when there's some form of interaction.

Any of you have tumblrs? I'd love to check them out!!

Oh and I TWEET now too. :) Let me know if you do! It's such a funky way to communicate with people and to find out more about what everyone else is doing... Yeah yeah I'm a bloody voyeur.

Ok it's frickin early in the morning as usual and time for me to sleeeep. Gosh that's how I always end my posts eh? :( I can't wait to post a proper one real soon!! Haven't had much time to read other blogs/reply to comments too...Took lots of photos over the Chinese New Year and for other random stuff which I can't wait to share haha... ok all in time.

PEACE OUT~