3 CAKES, 9 CYLUME STICKS... ONE BIG SURPRISE~!
19 JANUARY, 2009

The date is 19th January 2009, our 3rd month anniversary, since Charmaine & I got together, not considering the strange "stalker & the stalked" relationship we had between us for a duration of one year...

Today is also a Monday, which means there is Dragonboat training back in school, in the evening. A good time to surprise Charmaine... as she will think I'll be spending the night over at my hostel after training. They say the best time to surprise someone is when he/she is totally caught off guard! Well, it's time to set the Plan into motion...

Actually the plan was a very simple one, it was to forget about the usual 'after-training dinner' @ Can 2 & quickly run off back to Hall, take a quick shower, grab the necessary stuffs & take a bus out of "Pulau Ulu NTU". And then grab some cakes from Bakerzin @ Jurong Point & head off to Serangoon Gardens... for the big surprise!

Never will she expect my appearance, as I continued our usual exchange of SMS'es after training... hehe. Of course the train ride from Boon Lay to Serangoon was not an easy one... especially when you're feeling tired & sleepy after a tough training session, and still have to hold onto a box of cakes in fear that at any one moment, it might just fall onto the floor. Haha... if that happened, then it's Good Game...

Now the whole gist of the surprise plan was to celebrate our anniversary together before the clock strikes twelve midnight, so it was pretty much a race against time. Fortunately, I was able to reach the nearby park around her house & set up the necessary arrangements. The funny thing was while I was setting up cylume sticks on the ground... this Bangla passing by the area, stopped, got curious over what I was doing & invited himself over to see what I was doing... By the time I was done, I was thinking if he was gonna stay around & see the whole "show" when I invite Charmaine over... HAHAHA... Can you imagine that!? What a huge light bulb... not that he's gonna be giving off any lights... Well, we all know black entities can't give off light... =P (Can I even say such things on Blog?)

Anyway, thankfully he went off when I was making the call to ask Charmaine out of her house... Initially, there was some worry that Auntie won't allow her to go out so late, but knowing that it was our monthiversary, she gave the "go ahead"... Thanks Auntie! Luv ya =) Promise it won't happen too often...

So I asked Charmaine to make her way to the park, while I went to meet her along the way. Once we arrived at the entrance to the park, I told her to shut her eyes & I placed my hands over her eyes, to ensure No Peeking. Then I walked her over to the bench where we usually sit & sat her down carefully on the bench, asked her no matter what, don't peek! Don't ruin all the fun... Haha. Then I lit the candles on the cakes & sung her a "stupid song" for our 3rd month anniversary... which no one will get to hear about it in the future Hahaha. After that, we held hands together & made a wish, and blew out the candles. And next, we devoured the cakes greedily (That's me, I have a soft spot for desserts... hahaha) while taking pictures at the same time...

But unfortunately, mere pieces of cakes are not enough to satisfy my hunger since I've yet to have dinner at that moment. So we walked down the street to the about-to-close Chomp Chomp to take away Chicken Chop back to Charmaine's place for dinner... (Yes, auntie gave permission for me to stay over too, cuz it was way past midnight by then & there were no more buses back home). Now now, before all your thoughts start floating to those dark, dirty places... I slept on the couch in the living room downstairs, while Charmaine slept on her own bed in the room above. =P

And so marks the end of an lovely 3rd month anniversary celebration before the day itself passes at the strike of midnight... A good beginning to the start of a happy Chinese New Year... Gong Xi Gong Xi~

I SIMPLY LOVE BUSINESS LAW... & THE SIMPLE PLEASURES OF LIFE~!!!

I'm really beginning to LOVE my new business elective this semester: "Fundamentals of Business Law"!!!
Not only is the content of the module informative & engaging; teaching me about so many aspects of the LAW that I didn't know, for example, all along, all of us might have thought that a CONTRACT must be written out in black & white & signed in order for it to be legally binding in the eyes of the Law. But that may not be the case. Contracts can be & are most of the time, made orally... such as in purchasing a book from a bookstore or purchasing a bottle of tomato sauce from the supermarket etc. The fact is that anything can be a Contract as long as it constitutes 1) an OFFER, 2) an ACCEPTANCE, 3) an INTENTION to be legal binding, & 4) CONSIDERATIONS.

Another reason why I've FALLEN IN LOVE with the module is probably due to the lecturer who is a lawyer himself, Mr Tan Peng Kwee, having being extremely entertaining, keeping me awake throughout his two hours lectures (keeping in mind: this doesn't happen too often to me). HE IS VERY HILARIOUS! It's almost as though we are watching a live stand-up comedy performance! And I'm sure the whole lecture theater will agree with me in bursting laughter on this one!

Thus far, this is probably the only lecture that I've actually look forward to attending each thursday... until it gets a bit too challenging in the future, with all its facts...

I pray it doesn't...

"NEW YORK NEW YORK"

Further into the evening, after school has ended, I met up with Charmaine @ Jurong Point. I brought her to a hard-to-come-by dinner @ NEW YORK NEW YORK. It's not every time that we get to eat at such restaurants... as we are both students so we like to be a bit more thrifty, but like any couples, we still tend to splurge a bit sometimes hehe... In the end, we did have a sumptuous feast! And after dinner we walked around for some Chinese New Year shopping...

"Bravo Potato Wedges, Penne in Tomato Sauce & Seafood, Tagliatelle with Spare Ribs"

Now, by right, it was supposed to be ME who wanted to do the shopping. But in the end, even Charmaine couldn't overcome the ancient unwritten rule that shopping is still any girl's favourite past-time no matter where, no matter when. And so it turned into her shopping spree, instead of mine. Haha... She even set her eyes on a pair of Converse sneakers, while supposing to find one for me. Thankfully, I was able to drag her back before she got too carried away in wanting to buy this & that...

In the end, I did managed to buy a shirt & pair of pants under some words of praise from Charmaine. =P Anyway, I think it's a good idea to bring your girlfriends along during your shopping, guys. They offer some pretty good advices & are more than willing to express their views... So now, I have something to wear during Chinese New Year. YAY!

Good food, Good company & Shopping... The simple pleasures of Life.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2009
CHRISTMAS PARTY @ CHARMAINE'S PLACE:

Merry Christmas 2008~!!!

Christmas this time round is DIFFERENT! I'm being invited to Charmaine's place for a X'mas Party. OMG! I think it's more of a "meet the parents" session instead. However, this case scenario is inevitable & must come one day. Now or later doesn't make much difference either. So let what may come, Cometh!~

I arrived early to offer my services in anything that may require my assistance in... in my attempt to score extra points with Charmaine's parents hehe... but in the end, the only thing I helped in was replacing the faulty decorative lights outside the house. Haha... Everything else was already taken care of by Charmaine's mom... the food, the decorations, the settings. So there was really nothing much else for me to do, except to sit in the living room & watch TV, and occasionally playing with Charmaine's sister's dog, Pepper.

Friends & relatives started arriving soon after, as the clock struck six. First to arrive were two members of the infamous 8ight, Shirley & ShuXian... Now, 8ight is a group of eight polytechnic friends which my girlfriend is proudly part of, so of course they were invited to the party as well =]. Next, three more member of 8ight came along too: Rachel, Yina & Esther (Yes... I remember all your names now, girls). Finally, Alex arrived & the count of guys went up to two. Now, the theme of the X'mas party was "Mis-matched", but in my opinion, none of the people were dressed up for that theme. All except Alex, who was dressed in some sort of rugby trousers & swimming suit & that santa claus hat. I must say "Best Dressed Award" goes to Alex... Great job, pal. =P

"Best Dressed... definitely!"

Some joking around & photo-taking before dinner,

"Two Rudolphs the red-nosed reindeers"

"The infamous 8ight (missing two girls): Picture on the right:
Front row from the left, my Charmaine, Rachel, ShuXian. Back row from the left, Yina, Shirley, Esther"

Time for Dinner! Food, so much food... in all its wondrous glory~!!!

"Drinking with roulette shots, game of taboo & $5 gift exchange..."

When the night comes & the most of the quests leave, it's time for a nice game of mahjong. Bring out the mahjong, set the table, it's time for the games to begin! hehehe. I even had a game with Auntie & won... =P We played till around 3am as the players started to fall one by one... & we had to call the game off. And that night was the first night I slept over at Charmaine's... That night was the sweetest night of all, when we shared the same sofa, lying asleep, face to face... =)

"Mahjong is the Game of Choice for any Festive Gathering..."

Next morning came, and the first thing I see before me is my lovely girlfriend's sweet looking face - BLISS~!!! hehe... But that's not all, my Charmaine even got x'mas presents for me... as well as from Auntie (shocked the shit out of me)! Thanks babe, and Auntie!

"My X'mas present: the T-shirt from Levis Signature that I had my eyes on..."

MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2009:
MY BIRTHDAY @ SINGAPORE BOTANIC GARDENS...

Alritey boys & girls, before all of you (including my girlfriend) start ostracizing my blog, I gonna be updating my blog from today onwards. I know that I haven't been updating my blog for quite some time... I've been distracted by alot of things. Hehe =P

But if I'm gonna start blogging bout events that took place in December... I'm sure gonna blog bout my wonderful birthday celebrated alongside my favourite girl in the world (my Mom will be my favourite woman in the world, okay?), namely Charmaine my girlfriend... in a place forgotten by most Singaporeans - The Singapore Botanic Gardens. Yes... We do have a botanical gardens located in town, next to Gleneagles Hospital.

"You don't go to the Botanic Gardens & take no pictures of the plants there, right?"

So anyway, it was my 24th birthday... and we decided to have a simple picnic @ Singapore Botanic Gardens. Due to early morning showers, we could met up only in the early afternoon for some serious grocery shopping @ AMK Hub - so serious in fact, that we had plenty of leftovers by the end of the day which I brought home for my meals the following day. After the groceries were bought, we went back to my place to prepare the food for the picnic. Well, by the time we were done it was late afternoon around 4 - 5pm... =P (well, it was my first picnic, okayyyy) so we had to take a cab down to the Botanic Gardens if we wanted to have our picnic in daylight. On the taxi, it was then I came to know that the Botanic Gardens has more than one entrance! Haha...

"Arrival at the Gardens... X'mas mood... & one good Harry Potter train station clock"

Thankfully, there was still daylight when we arrived at the Gardens. And the place I must say was beautifully done up in preparation for the upcoming X'mas, especially the entrance with the big X'mas tree & reindeer & sleigh. We spent some time taking pictures to commemorate our setting foot into the Gardens once again, since childhood times... When we finally convinced ourselves that there's more to the Botanic Gardens than its entrance we decided it was time to move on. Just as we were leaving the entrance, we got carried away & distracted by the souvenir shop around the corner & we spent another good 30 minutes "wow'ing" at the exquisite gifts inside the shop before moving on!

"Her Favourite type of street lamp..."


"Enjoy the scenery of the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage"





"There are really swans at the Swan Lake~!!!"

When we finally left the shop with a few items, the skies turned dark & rain started to pour. Our spirits were immediately dampened! Thank God, the rain didn't last that long & we even enjoyed our walk under the light drizzle of blessings falling upon us... =) Of course we did some sightseeing & mostly, cam-whoring... before we came to our picnic spot, mainly cuz we were both exhausted from our long walk. In fear of another unpredictable rain, we set up our picnic under a shelter next to the Swan Lake... So romantic right! if you minus the fact that the green metal rubbish bin was located next to the shelther =P Well, you can't have the best of both worlds all the time...

"Picnic Time! - Two of my favourites - strawberries & cheese cake, all in one! And we prepared salad with ham & small potatoes in Italian sauce, cheesey chilli sausages, two mini Hawaiian pizzas & lastly, my speciality - cheese ham toast... WHAT A SPREAD!!!"

Well then, we laid out our food upon the picnic sheet in front of us. Charmaine even baked my favourite cheese cake for me! OMG... 我是感动到... (tears started to roll down my cheek, no lah, juz kidding!) Throughout the whole trip, she protected that "package" refusing to let any harm come upon it. I didn't know what was in that package. But since she said it was "fragile", I let her carry it while I carried the rest of the food stuffs... After the revealing of the cake, we started to dig in. The food was SUPERB, much to my amazement! I tell you... (You can leave the catering of food for the next DB gathering in our care! Haha... juz kidding!)

"Cam-whoring at the Gates of the Botanic Gardens"

From daylight to moonlight, we juz sat under the shelter eating, taking pictures, talking while lying on each other's laps... basically we were in our own world, enjoying each other's company. hahaha.

And after we left the Botanic Gardens like close to 9 o'clock. We took a walk down Orchard Road admiring the wonderful X'mas lightings, before we headed back home... both exhausted from a day full of laughter & joy.

So guys, idea ah... Bring your loved ones to the Botanic Gardens for a picnic. Cheerios~

"Thanks Babe for Everything..."