Wedding Bliss

On the 7th June, 2008, my friend Huan Yang celebrated another stage of his life... a stage that i would never get myself into..hahahha... He celebrated his wedding at Meritus Mandarin Hotel in Orchard. The Dunman gang were there as well, together with Violet's fiance (she's next.....). The night started out terribly, when i was wearing the outfit that i assembled for the dinner. It was the pants that i wore for my JC prom and guess what...i could not fit into the freakin pants. It must have shrunk in those years of abandonment in the closet. When i finally squeezed into it, i realized that the zipper was spoilt. I had to find another outfit to wear and rush to the dinner as i was like late. In the end, i wore something that seems apt in a filming scene... Violet said i looked like a director. Everybody else at our table wore shirt and pants. Great. Tse Guang, as usual was at his fashionably best, wearing a dapper suit complete with folded napkin at his breast.

The dinner was very sweet with lots of christian elements that i am not too comfortable with. There were prayers, the usual video montages, the christian song singalong that i thought gave more pleasure to the performers than the guests. Anyway, the best part was, i got a liiiiiitle bit drunk...keke....ahhhhh the joys of a wedding dinner... free wine!

The currently still unmarried ones of the Dunman Gang.

Dunman Gang with Huan Yang's wife

The same as above, now with Violet's fiance.

Forcing Huan Yang to drink alcohol..

Anyway, i think that they make a really cute couple, and i wish them well in their married life even though i don't believe in it...

Beijing delicacy

Recently, a chinese restaurant opened opposite my house, the same stretch as the famous chicken rice, a very daring move considering the legacy of the chicken rice and it being blocked by the over-head bridge. In order to attract customers to try, they're now offering 50% off everything on their menu except drinks and a separate menu which has like meat/fishes etc dishes. However, the menu that is 50% off is good enough to satisfy any hungry singaporean. They have a nice variety of dumplings and usual chinese dishes like la mians and fried rice. I went to try out the place with Marc and Daniel, and we ended up ordering food that is enough to feed 5 people; and all in all we only paid like 30 plus. The next day, i brought my 2nd brother and my grandma to have lunch there. The following are the food that we ordered.

Fried rice with brinjal and chicken...very very yummy...

2 Plates of dumplings, 1 with mixed fillings, and the other with vegetable. We also ordered the appetizer, pork in chili and garlic.

The food is good, cheap (even without the discount, a plate of fried rice is $6.80.. the dumplings range from $4 to $7.80 for the fish filing) and the service is very good. Alas, the business there isn't very good. Probably people working in the area didn't know that this place is opened and have 50%? This we do not know but i really hope that they will work it out because i really like the place and the food.

Adrian, my 2nd brother who came home a few days ago...

The 2 stone fountains, most probably for feng shui...

Beijing Yuan.. the name of the restaurant.

Grandma and me...

Studio Ghibli

I realized that i really like the animes from Studio Ghibli. The company was founded in 1985, and most of the animes are filmed by Hayao Miyazaki along with his colleague and mentor Isao Takahata. The music of Joe Hisashi accompanied most of the classic animes that i love so much. For my next birthday gift (or any occasion whatsoever), you can get me a Joe Hisashi movie symphony album. It will be GREAT!!! haha.....Anyway, these below are the animes that i had watched so far...

Laputa: Castle in the sky

Watched this recently on Tudou. What a great website to catch so many classic animes from Studio Ghibli. The love between the 2 young characters are so sweet.....

My neighbor Totoro

Watched this for one of my class in the Japanese post war anime module in NUS. Marc commented that i am Totoro and he is the girl.....Ooookkaayyyyyy....

Spirited away

The very first film i watched from Studio Ghibli. Up to now i can still watch it and be lost in the magical land of ghosts and dragons. I love the soundtrack of the movie too! Currently my message ring-tone is the theme of Spirited away.

Princess Mononoke

Was highly recommended by Sam, and i didn't regret watching the movie. This movie's music is THE BEST from Joe Hisashi so far.

Howl's moving castle

Watched this in the cinema.

Grave of the fireflies

This has got to be the saddest film i had ever watched. Watched this in the Japanese post war film module in NUS too and at the end of the film, almost everyone was like crying when the song 'Home sweet home' was playing. This film portrays how children suffered during World War 2.

These films from Studio Ghibli gave me so many beautiful memories and introduced me to the wonderful music of Joe Hisashi. I really hope that in the future, more of such classic animes will be produced.

Keith

On 8th March 2008, our GESL group from NIE worked together with the volunteers from Make-a-Wish foundation, fulfilled a young boy's wish of having an electronic mechanical bed, and a trip to the zoo. This boy's name is Keith. I finally receive the photos and videos and therefore would like to share that special day with you.

The star that the 'Home team' bought to decorate the house with. They came earlier to decorate the house when the 'Wish team' was out at the zoo with Keith.

The spread of food that the family prepared/bought. It includes Keith's favorite food which is KFC.

Keith loves super-heroes and therefore his room was specially decorated in that theme. We also bought him a Spider-man poster to frame in his room!

Part of the 'Home team'

Keith! After his surprise.

Keith's family and us crowding outside his room when he revealed his 'surprise gift', which was of course his bed.

With his super excited and hyper younger brother.

Me giving his brother a present. His sister also got a present but dunno why i never take picture with her...haha

Debbie, the volunteer from Make-a-wish. Keith's wish would be her last volunteer job as she is flying to South Africa with her husband. She is from Denmark...a wonderful wonderful lady.

The 'Wish team' and the 'Home team'

The surprise when Keith entered the hse


Revealing the wish

AFA show at PLAY

Last night, we went down to PLAY to support Sammizhen 's AFA show, and as usual, being camera whores, we took pictures and videos of that night...

Ken and Sammizhen backstage... it was my first time backstage at PLAY...haha...Daniel bought choya for Chris so he asked us to go backstage to drink the choya..keke...

Me and Chris

Fierce Turandot look..haha... either that or Lao Lao from 'A Chinese Ghost Story'

Ok this must be Lao Lao prior in engulfing her prey...think she'll be pretty full after this

Daniel in his new Uniqlo outfit...

Marc and I...people say he lost weight...is it??

After partying and dancing (its been so long since i danced), we proceeded to Tantric for a second round of drinks...

Jack, Bryan (can see that he's a little drunk huh) and Daniel

Jack eyeing people while trying to act cute...

Daniel and Jack

Greg and a pouty Marc

He still looks happier with me huh..keke

Me and Daniel

The rivals

The btms..hahhaha...eh where's Ken?

Here is the video of his show at PLAY.. i did not record the first part of the song...so this is the second part plus some talking...


ok the video is super blur...haha

Another cake

Hopefully its the last... diet diet

Another module down

Today was the last lesson for Prof Hoh... our Biology 1 tutor whom we all didn't really like in the beginning. He had a way of speaking and a way of doing things... very JC like if you must say. However, we realized that that was just his technique of classroom management. After warming up to us (and we to him), we realized that he is a very good tutor... he provided us with so many materials and resources to use in school in the future. These 2 pictures were taken with my biology classmates after his final lesson... guess i won't be seeing much of them too after this month as all the biology classes end this semester. Next semester will be practicum and after we come back to NIE in September, there will only be math and another elective module... well... will miss you guys (those that i know personally...keke... ).

Prof Hoh is the one looking lost in blue beside Elvin, the one in green on the extreme left.

25/00 Class outing

We had our JC class gathering again... since the guys at NTU had finally finished their exams. As with the tradition of 25/00, not everyone will turn up for the gathering. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant called

With the price, i do not find the food worth it...i've tasted much better japanese food and they cost less than what they're charging me with here.

Alana with me

Teresa's wierd dish, which comprised of rice with green tea.

Alana's unagi rice... think Xian Xi tried unagi for the first time as he was commenting on why the skin of the unagi at the bottom was black. He asked was it burnt. We stared with disbelief.

Fried Shitake mushrooms

Salmon cutlet

Teresa and I

Same as above

Teresa, me and Alana

Xian Xi with Teresa, Serene and Alana

After dinner, we proceeded to an Italian restaurant for dessert..its called

Teresa recommended the place because apparently the cakes are half-priced after 9pm or something, however when we went there, they said it was at 930pm and that it had to be take away. Well, since we were already there might as well...

Siqing looking at the cakes

The girls of 25/00 (incomplete)

All of us (those that came)

Each of us ended up ordering a cake to share, and i ordered another cup of classic hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was soooo good, i don't really mind going back there again. As for the cakes, i think that its a rather interesting and good mix of classics and non-classics (curry cake??), however with a price of about $9 per cake, i would rather buy from Gastronomia.

It was a rather fun night, a night of catching up with each other and having expensive food (spent $40 for that night). Hopefully we'll catch up soon...