Mid Semester Update

hello guys! time for a mid semester update, it's been too long a time. this whole recess week was spent on FYP alone and nothing else, goodness! it's taking up too much time and hell hasn't even begun yet. these last two months before graduation will be the living hell for me. pharmacy can't even give us a break for our last semester of university life :( okay, sorry for being angsty!

14th February, Valentines' Day
my deadline for the first draft of my FYP report which is graded, and there's school! :( anyway, was so looking forward to the arrival of the durian jar cake that jielin and i ordered. and when it came, being singaporeans, we took pictures of the pretty and unique packaging before we start digging in.



was about to open the jar and start tasting the durian cake when my classmate pointed and said "ee, what's that? is that hair? dyed somemore leh! oh my god it's inside not outside!" so there goes our cake. returned and refunded. some say it's durian fibre later, guess i'll never know :/

thankfully, the day was made so much better by my valentine! :) i've finally spent V day the cliche way! :D Q drove us to Grand Hyatt for our buffet dinner because he said we hadn't tried dining in a hotel. and since it was my first V day, we should have a good one. aww melts. anyway, i'm guilty for not preparing anything because i was caught up with my FYP report. also, Q is really fussy he uses only one or two items out of the many i bought him! so i decided to get him food instead. since i have no time to whip up anything, i remembered this cute cookie from spinelli which i thought was appropriate for the occasion! :P



and Q was afraid i'd start comparing bouquets he bought slightly more roses so that mine wouldn't be the smallest. how cute! and auntie him was so happy he bought the flowers for a really cheap price considering it's V day. he roped in his two other buddies to buy the flowers in bulk and even got extra stalks for free after bargaining with the auntie. seriously an auntie killer!



and another shot! haha. couldn't resist taking more pictures of the pretty thing.

okay, enough of the sweetness, let's move on to the food!

we started off with dessert first, how weird! i liked the tiramisu cake. the pudding was too sour for my liking.

and they had this two-layer tray for every table. we even thought of refilling ours. no idea why but the both of us were just too full after the dessert, main and weird tasting cheese for any refills. in fact, we didn't even finish those on the tray. sorry but i can't seem to rotate these two pictures. so tilt you heads people! :P

and we ordered lots of drinks to make our money worth. because each pot of tea and coffee cost around ten bucks! i drank two pots of tea and one cappuccino. he had a total of 6 cups of drinks D: that's my first pot of fruit tea and some leftover cheese in the background.

no idea why but he likes to order drinks that come in smaller servings when both of ours are of the same price! i was expecting coffee art though :(

when we were done with dinner and back in the car, Q gave me my presents! :D so touched with the note he wrote, so much so that i teared :') because he's not one who expresses and chooses mushy cards like "you & me" haha! that's a puzzle by the way. he knows i'll take forever to fix them so he left it as it was. as for the mug, i just picked up a similar one a few days ago when we were walking around and he bought a similar one. if i'd knew earlier, i'd have picked up something i like or maybe even something more expensive! :P

Chinese New Year
the year of the snake doesn't seem to be a good one for me, those born in the year of the snake, according to what was written in the temples. i like to read about zodiacs during new year haha.

my family was not supposed to celebrate chinese new year this year, so we could only do gatherings. this means that i have no red packets this year! :( boo hoo, no income for the year. anyway, here's a picture of the family on the first day at my grandma's.

with my grandma! <3

and the cousins!

all right, before i end this post, i'd like to share my current favourite song! brother got me addicted to it. yes, we are emo kids in love with emo songs.



and my dad showed me this video about UFOs trying to destroy this meteorite that fell onto Earth on 15 February in Russia. so have aliens really found their way to Earth?

When Rachel Turns 23!

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO MYSELF!
as promised, here's an entry on my birthday! and as usual it was a calorie overloaded one. my birthday came early this year when i was surprised with a huge fruit tart from fruit paradise at my doorstep on the night before i turned 23. aww so sweet!

so colourful isn't it? i don't usually eat strawberries, berries and cream, but i ate everything on that tart. the cream was unlike any other on birthday cakes and i particularly love the crust of the tart. simply heavenly!

and apparently i'm still being seen as a kid when i received this along with the tart:

on the morning of my birthday, i got my favourite choco exotic from four leaves from the pharmacy clique! thanks to jielin who bought the cake :) love the blend of the different layers of chocolate in the mouth :D it's a must-eat every year!

dinner was a treat from the family at Manhattan Fish Market at Changi City Point. this is the first time my family celebrated birthdays out. usually we just buy a cake home for the four of us to eat. we ordered from the triple treats because each meal was only going for $12.95 instead of the usual price, and it comes with iced lemon tea and soup, either salmon chowder (additional $3) or cream of mushroom.

the stingy family chose cream of mushroom! :P i'd have mushrooms any time than salmon anyway. and this is the nicest one i've tasted so far. they were generous with their ingredients (more mushrooms equals a happier me) and the soup's thick, unlike the rather dilute ones at other restaurants.

mum and brother had Small Grill.

A radiant mix of grilled tiger prawns, calamari and dory fillet, with a side of chips, Garlic Herb rice and veggies.

and dad picked Scallops Mussels Skewers (SMS).

A trio of sea-filled wonder! Enjoy fish skewers in Chipotle sauce, Garlic Herb mussels and grilled scallops served with the Garlic Herb rice, chips and veggies.

and the birthday girl's pick, Scallops Fish Chicken (SFC).

Enjoy a serving of freshly grilled chicken, crispy fish fingers and fried scallops served with a helping of our Garlic Herb rice, chips and veggies.

we were all really full after the main course but the dessert looked so tempting. so we ordered Sizzling Brownie with Ice-Cream for the four of us to share! :D can't describe how much i like the taste and feeling of the mix of cold ice-cream and warm brownie slide down the throat! 

The harmony of elements, crispy & warm sizzling brownie, topped with smooth vanilla ice-cream in sweet caramel sauce and nuts.

and you would think the calorie intake for the day ends here. NO! met up with the secondary school bunch at Bark Cafe, so how can i miss my favourite (after my grandma's) wings! on top of that we had potato wedges as well and two jugs of juices. moreover, it's already close to midnight, sinful sinful!

as usual, we stayed up till a few hours past midnight, but mostly because it was pouring for quite a while. even the kitchen was closed and the waitresses had changed out of their uniforms. guess what, yanxuan and i were born on the same day! i was always glad that in secondary school, i didn't have to go through the awkward moment when every one sang "happy birthday" for you alone :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER!

was trying to find a decent picture of us and then i remembered this funny picture. oh and if you are wondering, she's the older one! :P

and i can't stress on how lucky we are to have a chef in the group! aloysius baked us delicious brownies for our birthday! *screams* i ate it the same way, with ice cream on top of my heated-up brownie :)

last but definitely not the least, THANK YOU EVERYONE, who made my birthday an enjoyable one; all the planning and coordinating and surprises! and of course, not forgetting those who wished me as well!!

Before the Final Semester

hi all, i apologize for not blogging regularly. i foresee more irregular updates these few months because the final semester at NUS had started! :( projects, tests, deadlines, FYP. i'm about to collapse though it's only the first week of school. looking forward to graduation and graduation trips! :D

so before the last semester started, the pharmacy clique decided to meet up one last time for dinner before all hell breaks loose. we decided to meet in town, but since it was raining rather heavily by the time we reached, our plans changed and we decided to dine at Pique Nique as it was sheltered all the way from Orchard MRT station.

it was my second time there and i decided not to order eggs benedict like i did the previous time and like i always do. so i ordered Pique Nique's Big Breakfast.

2 eggs poached, scrambled, or fried, grilled bacon & pork sausage, grilled tomato, baked beans served with white toast and side salad, with choice of orange juice or coffee.

i had my eggs poached and chose coffee over orange juice. i felt that the price is reasonable; a couple more bucks for a drink as compared to ordering from their drinks menu which i thought is kind of pricey and not worth the price. but oh boy, i regret not sticking to the safe choice of eggs benedict. poached eggs without hollandaise sauce tastes horribly bland to me. and there was even water oozing out together with the yolk which makes the eggs even more bland :(

susan and jielin had Norwegian Benedict. 

2 poached eggs with toasted English muffin, smoked salmon, sour cream, served with side salad.

and i think junhao had Classique Croque Madame.

Classic French style toasted sandwich of home-made white toast bread sandwiched with Mornay cheese sauce and Paris ham served with side salad and fried egg.

and cheryl had the Classic Benedict which i wished i had ordered!

2 Poached eggs with toasted English muffin, steamed ham, hollandaise sauce, served with side salad.

we also ordered Texan Ranch Fries to share! this tastes so much better than that of High Society's. love the sour cream especially.

Pique Nique's fries with ranch dressing and sour cream served on the side.

overall, the food were really nice but rather salty for all of us. being future healthcare professionals, we joked that they were hypertension-inducing. we drank quite a bit of water because of the saltiness. 

the next day was meeting the secondary school bunch for our really late christmas gift exchange. it wasn't as exciting because most of us had already stated what we wanted - gift vouchers! and yay, thank you charmaine, for my capitaland vouchers! this means more shopping! :D the excitement was more for the guys especially when aloysius lugged a huge and soft package. he bought junwei a pillow the previous exchange so none of us, at least for me, wanted this suspicious-looking, highly-likely-a-pillow-again present. and yes, i'm not sure if this is considered lucky or unlucky, junwei got aloysius' present again!

junwei will get aloysius for his angel by default the next time. blanket, bedsheets and a bed set the next few exchanges!

felix got my present, which is one of which he requested, cufflinks! oh my, i had quite a tough time choosing one. what do you all think of it?!

and aloysius got the air purifier that he requested from sherlyn. so cute right! actually to date we are still debating if it's an air purifier or an airfresher.

before that we went for zichar dinner at tampines block 800 something, somewhere near temasek polytechnic. supposed to go i wanna get stuffed initially but aloysius and yanxuan were craving for rice and kang kong. each of us contributed $20 to the pool but the bill for the zichar amounted to only $80 for the eight of us, which is really cheap! and there was even free dessert, wow!

and here's a peek of what we had for dinner:

hot plate tofu and kang kong

 furong egg and fish maw soup

 cereal prawns and calamari. finding the orange sauce weird? it actually tastes similar to mayonaise.

and the complimentary dessert!

pardon the blur pictures, we were really hungry! took quick shots of the dishes because we couldn't wait to dig in. and i must say, this group of us devour the foods really fast.

with the remaining money, we headed to ice cream chef to spend some of the cash. ordered tiramisu and durian, and chayen and iced peach tea. durian was the bomb, the durian taste is really rich! needless to say, durian was the first to be finished and iced peach tea was the last. nonetheless, we gobbled up these two plates at amazing speed as well. 

still, we had some money remaining and this group of us just had to do something instead of sitting around. being extremely spontaneous, and having a tradition of staying out late over the years (not as late in the recent years as age is catching up with all of us), we went for midnight prawning at pasir ris!

and i must say, prawning requires some patience, good eye sight (so that you don't go crossed eye looking at the line) and skill (at least for me, because it took me 8 failed attempts before i successfully pulled out a prawn!). 

our first catch was caught by charmaine, and it was really huge! it clinged onto the net and refused to be put into the basket, and i found it pitiful. actually for every prawn i caught, i felt as though bad karma will befall me :( nonetheless, it's an amazing experience and i felt that i learnt something. thankful for the guys who did the work of putting the bait, setting up the rod and removing the prawns from the hook! :)

and there's junwei with the largest catch of our night, the bored people waiting for the prawns to bite the bait, and our pathetic few catches, 6 prawns, for the two hours. the uncle gave us extra prawns after that probably because we underperformed!

i will never forget how epic all of our reactions were for every prawn caught, particularly yanxuan's catches. she practically flings the prawns out of the pond and they were like "flying" being dangled on the rod. all the girls were taking cover, trying to avoid touching the prawns while the guys were frantically trying to catch hold of the prawns from the swinging rods!

next entry: my birthday! yes i'm 23 already. physically feeling the aging process :( hopefully i'll be able to update soon!

This is the Season to be Jolly

christmas this year was spent with a few of the girls from the summer exchange. i think most of us assumed each other would have plans made for christmas already so we don't usually date each other out on christmas. turns out that the four of us are free on christmas day itself, so we decided to meet up for high tea.

high tea was at TWG Tea at Marina Bay Sands. absolutely love the ambiance; it's kind of situated on a platform bridge across the MBS "river". the service was really prompt as well!

ordered Eggs Benedict from the all day dining section of the menu.
Homemade toasted English muffins topped with two poached farmhouse eggs served with creamy hollandaise sauce and a choice of smoked salmon or turkey ham.

the waitress recommended the 1837 Black Tea to go with my mains.
TWG Tea’s renowned signature tea, 1837 Black is a unique blend of black tea with notes of fruits and flowers from the Bermuda triangle which leaves a lingering aftertaste of ripe berries, anise, and caramel. A timeless classic.
true enough, the fruity berry taste lingers! one pot of tea was supposed to be able to serve 5 cups, but mine only served 3 :(

it was the same four that explored toronto during the last few weeks of our summer exchange while the others closed themselves in their rooms mugging hard for their papers because their papers were earlier than ours. 

we were craving for some brownies but sadly they don't serve any, so we headed over to High Society, also at MBS.

we ordered Truffle Fries, and honestly i think i can whip up a better and larger plate of fries for the price we paid. didn't take a picture of it because it doesn't look like anything special.

i forgot the name of this dish. it's served with garden salad, mashed potato and pork sausage. wondering where's the mashed potato? it's crushed under the sausage! the sausage and mashed potato were not bad but the vegetables were bitter.

they had interesting names for the cupcakes. we ordered Red Velvet, Flirt, Casanova and Lust (starting from the cupcake on the left and in anti-clockwise direction). pretty yet sinful. the top's all cream!

so it turns out that we didn't have brownies in the end. the service was slow despite us pressing the buttons and raising our hands. the plates were also not properly cleaned, and the food portion is quite little! the waitress asked if we wanted our cupcakes to be served together with the mains and sides so we said yes, but they didn't serve it together in the end. instead, they came over when we're almost done with the mains and sides to ask if we wanted our cupcakes to be served then. this leaves a bad impression!

and it's christmas! how can we not have a shot with the christmas tree?

next entry: girlfriends' first christmas party (after 6 years)!