#31: Congrats to my ex-students

Today’s the release of N’s…
One of my ex students just told me that they have successfully went up to Sec5.
Really glad for them!

It’s weird how I still feel so happy for them, even though I only had 1/2 a year with them from Jan – June. And after 1/2 a year, one of them still bother to tell me how they fare.
Well, I suppose they really respect me, even though I don’t think I am a good teacher then during my contract teaching.

I think this is one of the happy things in being a teacher, seeing your students excel. =]

#30: Uccello Pasta~Pizza~Wine Bar

I went to this hidden gem in Jurong Hill, well to be exact, it is not on Jurong Hill, but beside Jurong Bird Park, a restaurant found within the Village@Jurong hill. The name, Uccello Pasta~Pizza~Wine Bar. I didn’t bring a camera that night, so sorry for the poor quality of the photos taken, it doesn’t do any justice to the food and ambience!
It is a restaurant introduced by Dear’s friend. So we decided to visit it after I mention I have craving for pasta.
When we arrived, it was like empty, except for an occupied table.
The ambience was quite nice.
THe prices aren’t that exorbitant too, so we ordered a Minestrone, a Caesar’s Salad, a carbonara for me and a vongole for him. THey served us free foccacia bread (4 slices), warm up, accompanied with olive oil+vinegar. It was nice and sweet thought, when the supervisor, Jacky, came around to deliver the bread to us, he was like ‘this one, can try!’. haha

Warm Foccacia bread...

The salad is gd! I wonder why? The caesar sauce is nice! And they mixed it really well so much so that each green has the sauce…… heavenly! The minestrone soup is also THICK, not the watery kind and with loads and loads of veggies inside…

Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad


Minestrone, in a cup


Then came the pasta, hmm, my carbonara is a bit too sticky, but still it is not the overly creamy kind, not bad. His vongole is good I feel, smells damn good with the garlic and olive oil. yummy.. but I would prefer it with abit more white wine. But still, nice. And man they gave alot of clams, probably because the clams were lil’ puny to start with.

Carbonara (with loadsa bacon and onions!)


Vongole (Bianco)


After our dinner, we decide to stay on, cos we really felt welcomed by Jacky the supervisor, he came over to like talk to us, asking how’s the food. We decided to have out desserts here. We ordered tiramisu for me, a waffle+ice cream and long black for him.
The tiramisu is homemade according to the menu, I’m not an ardent tiramisu fan, so I can’t really tell what is good and what is not, but the tiramisu they served, oh man, I must say, it suits my palate! Firstly, it is not the cakey kind that you get in Coffeebean or hotel buffets, it is the soft and very moist kind. According to the description on their online menu “Mascarpone Cheese, Amaretto and Espresso soaked Savoiardi Biscuits”. Heavenly! Very good…! The coffee taste was intense, the alcohol wasn’t as intense though, but the cheese, wow… don’t worry it is not the very cheesy taste, it is very light and sweet, very nice!

Tiramisu


His waffle+ice cream took some time to come. When it finally came, Jacky was like saying to dear ‘your waffle, better than hers!’… Then I was like ‘booooo’. haha…
Anyway, amazingly… the waffle is really nice! Haha, it’s the waffle batter! It has a natural sweetness to it, it is warm, fluffy and crispy on the sides. Oh man… it definitely wins Gelare’s waffle!

Waffle+Icecream

Even though we were like full to the brim, we managed to finish everything. The total bill, after tax, comes up to about $72. I would definitely love to come back here again. It’s a quiet place, where u can have a good meal and good chat. It’s a pity that this place remains rather unknown, there isn’t any review on HGW and when I googled it, there’s no review on it as well. So I would like to shout out to my friends, go visit! When we left the place, Jacky passed us his name card, saying next time if we visit here or their korean restaurants, we can get 15% discount by just presenting his namecard! Cool stuffs!

Visit their website if you’re interested : http://uccellobistro.com

#29: Recent happenings

1) I was down, meaning sick. Probably gotten it from my family, who returned from China 1 week back. I still can’t really speak now. Boo… throat hurts damn badly. I need to recover soon so that I can get my H1N1 vaccination at least 2 weeks prior to my Japan Trip!

2) School is officially over! Yea! Submitted my final assignment for this semester on Wednesday. Now it’s one month of resting, but…. there’s still work to be done! Education Psychology, boo!
But well, this whole month, I should like rest well, this is probably the only major break I have before I start my formal teaching stint.

3) I went to 313@Somerset Opening (yes, I am like so free! And so auntie-ish!), but my main aim was to visit Singapore’s largest Uniqlo! Man, there were so many people!

Opening of 313@Somerset - Lion Dance


Anyways, I went straight to the Uniqlo @ level 3, but guess what, so many people already! I am there not to get the very cheap jacket they advertise, but more for the HeatTech stuffs that dear ask me to get, but they don’t have the color he wants! So I looked around my bra top, also don’t have the color I looking for. By the time I dilly dally around, the queue to the fitting room is so long! There were just too many people inside the store! I decided to try their skinny jeans/pants that is on offer (still on offer now, till 24th I think), and also looking at some other jeans (not the ones on offer), when I was looking through them, someone said ‘Excuse me’. I turned and he said he wanna do an interview with me, with the camera already shooting me and with his mic and recorder directed towards me. He said they are from Japan Tv and would like to do a short interview with me, I was like ‘Errr… ok’.
He asked me questions like ‘What are you doing here in Uniqlo?’, ‘What are you planning to buy today?’, ‘How do you feel about Uniqlo?’, ‘How do you compare Uniqlo with other stores like GAP, Guess…?’. Well, personally, I really like Uniqlo as a casual brand, so it was easy for me to answer his questions. In addition, I heard of this brand long before they came into Sg, all thanks to dear who like to talk about this brand cos he gotten a Tshirt from them in Tokyo years ago and he likes to rave about it. Anyways, Uniqlo provides affordable and good quality apparels, their stocks and designs always comes and goes very fast, meaning, new designs are constantly being brought in, so there’s always something new to see in the store if you go like once every fortnight. ONe very last thing I kept emphasising, Uniqlo’s sizes are true to Asian sizes! So I definitely can find my sizes easily! For US brands, I simply cant get their sizes! Even their S is way too big for me!
Uniqlo is definitely a successful brand, even Straits Times this morning reported that Uniqlo had managed to break even in just 6 months time after setting up their stores in Tampines and ION! Amazing!
And well, I’m visiting Japan and I definitely won’t miss visiting the Uniqlo there! haha

#28: You belong with me – Taylor Swift

Call me a teeny-bopper, but I still can’t shake off this song off my mind even though it’s been a few months!
Taylor Swift is such a talented singer, explaining why she’s so big in Music Awards this year! In the recent AMA, she even beat MJ for the most prizes taken home (including best female, artiste of the year, best album), this is an amazing feat for a 20-year-old song writer! She’s definitely not a bimbo! She really can sing!

I think part of the reason why this song is superb, is because of the cute MV! Very very nice MV, even dear was hooked on to watching the whole MV whenever we saw it on the MTV channel.

The lyrics to the songs is absolutely superb!
Popular guy likes popular girl, geeky girl likes popular guy, but is only like a gd frd to him, after that then he realise she’s the one he really likes. Awww…

Here’s the MV:

Lyrics:
You’re on the phone with your girlfriend, she’s upset
She’s going off about something that you said
‘Cause she doesn’t get your humor like I do

I’m in the room, it’s a typical Tuesday night
I’m listening to the kind of music she doesn’t like
And she’ll never know your story like I do

But she wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts
She’s Cheer Captain and I’m on the bleachers
Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find
That what you’re looking for has been here the whole time

If you could see that I’m the one who understands you
Been here all along, so why can’t you see?
You, you belong with me, you belong with me

Walking the streets with you and your worn-out jeans
I can’t help thinking this is how it ought to be
Laughing on a park bench, thinking to myself
Hey, isn’t this easy?

And you’ve got a smile that could light up this whole town
I haven’t seen it in a while since she brought you down
You say you’re fine, I know you better than that
Hey, what ya doing with a girl like that?

She wears high heels, I wear sneakers
She’s Cheer Captain and I’m on the bleachers
Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find
That what you’re looking for has been here the whole time

If you could see that I’m the one who understands you
Been here all along, so why can’t you see?
You belong with me

Standing by and waiting at your back door
All this time how could you not know?
Baby, you belong with me, you belong with me

Oh, I remember you driving to my house in the middle of the night
I’m the one who makes you laugh when you know you’re ’bout to cry
And I know your favorite songs and you tell me ’bout your dreams
Think I know where you belong, think I know it’s with me

Can’t you see that I’m the one who understands you?
Been here all along, so why can’t you see?
You belong with me

Standing by and waiting at your back door
All this time, how could you not know?
Baby, you belong with me, you belong with me

You belong with me
Have you ever thought just maybe
You belong with me?
You belong with me

#27: Tajimaya Yakiniku (26th Nov)

On a Thurs night (eve of holiday), in Vivocity, 7plus, we walked around, wondering what to get for dinner.
Finally settled in Tajimaya Yakiniku, since there wasn’t any queue.

Basically, it is a DIY-grill-your-own-food dining experience.
The dinner set is quite worthwhile, considering the amount of food, but we still opted Ala-carte as we get to choose what we really want instead of the dinner set.

Assorted kimchi ($8)

We ordered 1 mixed kimchi assortment, 1 shiso rice for him and 1 garlic rice for me, for the grilling, we ordered vegetable assortment, pork belly marinated in miso, chicken marinated in teriyaki, and squid.
Oohhh… man…

Marinated chicken, pork belly and squid! Big big portion

Assorted Veggies

The squid is fresh! They marinated the stuffs so well. It was so so delicious!
The pork belly is sinful, but well, I cant help but eat everything in, with the thick thick portion of fats! Sinful!!!

flipping the squid

 

grilling our food...

One of the good thing about this place is, you don’t and won’t stink like a food court after the grilling!!! So kudos to the ventilation system they have in place.
Good place to go, quiet, good ambience and good food.

Here’s the website:

http://www.tajimaya.com.sg

#26: Service Learning (21st Nov)

The GESL is a module in NIE, whereby you are group into random groups and the group has to organise an activity/service learning.

For us, we had a walk in Henderson Waves with students from carecorner.
It was held last sat, and I must say, though it was blazing hot, the overall event was quite interesting, the interaction with the kids was superb!
I kindof enjoyed it though I was like super tired!

Students from carecorner may have family issues etc, so our task was to let them enjoy an event of walk and show them care and concern.
The walk started from Henderson Waves, thru Telok Blangah Hill Park, to the forest walk, over the Alexandra Arch and finally to Hort Park where we had some small games and packed lunch.
The buddy I had is a 10yr-old girl. I talked to her and try to know her. I think it is important to talk to your kids like that in future, so that they will know you care for them. I think one problem that parents now have is lack of communication with their children, so in future, we should always make an effort to communicate with your kids.
I enjoyed interacting with my buddy, pretty and sweet, really amazes me how I can bond with someone in sucha short time.

For the station game, I am in charge of Magic carpet, whereby each group is to cross from a point and reach a destination, given 2 mats. Relatively simple game that probably an adult will shout ‘BORING’, but I can see that the kids enjoyed themselves alot.

At the end of the event, we need to go back to our own groups, and we will pass around a piece of paper with your own name, and everyone in that group is supposed to write down something good about you.
I think this is a wonderful thing to do, these kids need encouragement from people, so if they have a piece of paper that has all the good things written about them, it will boost their confidence and esteem levels.
In exchange, I get to enjoy the same piece of words from them as well, my buddy even wrote ‘I love you’, awwwwwww…. my heart melted.

#25: So sorry for the lack of posts

Extremely sorry for the lack of posts for the longest time!

Am extremely busy with school work, believe it or not! NIE is so busy! Somehow I find it busier than when I having my undergraduate studies!
Probably because all the deadlines for assignments kindof overlap one another. For the past month, it had been quite crazy! Really…
Lesson plans, Assignment, Reports…

But things are getting better, only 3 major assignments left! 2 will be due next week, and yes I’m doing them now and I foresee myself doing it till quite late tonight.
After that I shall be more free to do some updates.

NIE has been full of ups and downs I suppose. Ups: Met new people and they are all fun and we really exchange lotsa information. We even went out on ECP cycling last week and conquered 40km! The tutors are all nice as well! Downs: The infinite assignments!

Lastly, before I end this post, I will be going to Japan! Yea! For a retreat before my new school term starts next year. It is probably gonna be the only break I will have before I start my formal teaching career in June next year, so I am so going to cherish this opportunity and enjoy myself in Japan! So any kind souls with good japan tips, do drop me some! =]

#24: The Peak

If you havn’t already heard of The Peak, where have ya been?!

The Peak is HDB’s DBSS(Design, Build and Sell Scheme), so it is essentially a government flat, but it is designed by private developers and it is similar to a condo, but minus off the facilities. In addition, the house comes with tiles(flooring done), doors, water heater, toilet is done, kitchen is done with cupboards, cooking hob, so basically this is similar to what a condo offers, a move-in state after the house is complete is 2012.

However, prices for such DBSS are usually high.
We have friends who have officially purchase units from there. And therefore, there had been requests for us to consider getting a unit there as well, so we can all be neighbours.
There’s only 5 roomed flats left in The Peak, and the price ranges from 539 – 722 k, depending on the location of the unit and floor level.

We went to visit the Peak’s showroom, directly opposite to the future site of the Peak itself. It looks really pretty, the balcony is wide! The master bedroom is huge as compared to the master bedroom of other HDB flats, and the toilets look nice! I also like the bay windows. The whole house is so zen-ish.

We worked our finances, it’s going to be a bit tough to fork out the initial down payment. We aint as lucky as our friends who have the ‘moola’ support from their parents.
Anyways, we are going to try to apply the HLE loan and see how much can HDB loan us, most probably is 90%.

Told this to mum, she asked why the need to get 5 room flat right from the start? And that she thinks it’s a bit far in Toa Payoh. Dear’s parents have the same concern as well.
Well, it’s a bit far fetched to get The Peak no doubt about that.
But we dreamt abit of having an unit there cos it’s real pretty.
And that we have friends as our neighbours, how cool is that?!
Toa Payoh is also close by to town, accessible to alot of places somemore, good food… And resale housing index is also pretty high, so in the long run, the unit’s probably going to generate $$$ for us.
But well, can sense that our parents still prefer for us to stay nearby them.

Well, do consider The Peak.
Their website is at: http://www.thepeakattpy.com/

#23: Congrats to Dear Cindy

Congrats to Cindy on her ROM.
She’s the first among our Uni peers to get hitched! hee

I was shocked initially when she sent us the sms saying that she’s going to become a Mrs on National Day. Because her bf is still studying, that’s why I was super shocked to know that she’s having ROM.
But after that I know that it’s because she gotten a resale unit in Yishun, so she has to ROM soon.

Anyway, we met up with Cindy 2 days before she ROM.
It was fun meeting up and chit-chatting cos havn’t had the chance for quite some time.

Met up @ Ma Maison

Met up @ Ma Maison


Dear + Cindy

Dear + Cindy


Me + Cindy

Me + Cindy


Bev, Me, Dear, Cindy

Bev, Me, Dear, Cindy


Final group pic

Final group pic

#22: Pasta Inc: Jul’s birthday celebration

Well, this is an outdated post.
We went to Pasta Inc, situated at 279 Jalan Besar, to celebrate our dear Jul’s birthday 2 weeks back.

As fans of Hungrygowhere.com, ling and I had noticed the Pasta Inc’s link on the main page of HGW for quite sometime, but always havnt had the time to have a try.
Finally, we decided to go try since there is a buy 4 get 1 free pasta.

One thing to note, it’s easier to go Pasta Inc if you have your own transportation. There’s ample parking space on the other side of the road, if not, go to the sports stadium to park.

Pasta Inc is a small, cosy Italian restaurant that serves mainly pasta, italian appetizers, mains (no pizza though). It is only about 7th month old. When we reached, there wouldn’t other customers. The server and the owner of the restaurant were all very keen in recommending the food to us. They indicated that some items are not indicated on the menu, like grilled portobello, saffron cream pasta or anything Italian we can think of and if they have the time and materials, they can definitely do it for us, that’s what I called personalised and good customer service! When Jul asked about the availability of risotto, the owner said ‘of course’, but it will take a quite a long time to prepare unless we are willing to wait.
Anyway, we ordered 2 portobellos, 2 baked eggplant, 1 pasta each and of course Jan’s salad.

Just for those who have no idea what portobellos are, they are a type of mushroom, the very big mushroom that you can now find in NTUC (but the one they served us is bigger than the ones you find in NTUC). Oh man, it’s so gd! The juiciness of the woody-flavoured mushroom, and it’s grilled to perfection with a layer of cheese. Thumbs up!

Portobello!

Portobello!

The grilled eggplant, well, it’s quite a small plate of eggplant for the price, but still, it’s rather nice. Personally, I prefer the grilled eggplant that Pasta Fresca serves. But somehow, they differ abit also. Neverthelss, it’s still not bad.

Grilled eggplant

Grilled eggplant

I ordered a seafood linguini in white wine sauce.
I think white wine base pasta will be a new love for me!
For me, I find it hard to finish pasta that is cream-based. So in terms of pasta bases, my favourite is white wine & aglio olio style. Always, aglio olio remains on top, but sometimes I find it hard to dispose the garlic smell that lingers for hours in the mouth after the meal. But still… both aglio olio and white wine base is my top picks!

Seafood linguini in white wine base

Seafood linguini in white wine base

Had a try at the off-the-menu saffron cream based seafood pasta, well, it’s pretty unique, I think this is also not bad!

Saffron cream seafood pasta

Saffron cream seafood pasta

Dear’s lasagne was pretty good too! Pretty flavourful! But abit pricey for its price. I think it’s $16.90. But, lasagne fill one up easily!

lasagne

lasagne

On top of our food, we had white wine too!
I had 2 glasses of it myself! haha..
It’s cheap to purchase by bottle, only $45 I recall.
Well, i can’t drink too much alcohol as some of my body parts will flush and may itch. But nowadays, it seems better, perhaps I’m improving…

Anyways, the owner of the restaurant was very warm and friendly to us! He’s a young chap, under 30 somemore! Talked to us, told us how and why he started the business. Can see that he’s a hardworking dude who has a passion for the food industry. He even told us something that I was quite shocked!
Cos he wanted to advertise his restaurant, so he wanted to invite the famous food blog owner for a food tasting and review, but he do so foy a charge!? Not sure if we hear wrongly, but the amount is quite big!
Here are some screenshots of our experience there!

Happy Bday Jul! (The male owner in the background)

Happy Bday Jul! (The male owner in the background)


Group Pic (w/o Kel)

Group Pic (w/o Kel)


Group pic (With Kel)

Group pic (With Kel)

« Older entries