School's out!

hello!!!

gosh this space has been so dead recently because life's been boring. nothing but studying studying...haha okay not really :p actually it's been pretty unproductive mugging lately :p guess it's the last semester syndrome! in just four days, i'll be done with my SMU life and i'm gonna be on a plane to taiwan in just a week's time!!! (wheeeee ^^ i'm so absolutely excited - though apparently it's gonna be rainy, which i'm still hoping does not happen :x)

i can't believe my SMU life is almost over :( well, it's really almost the end now, just one more exam to go. i'm going to miss school so much! so happy that we spent the last 2 weeks #makingyear4count though! check out our instagram hashtag for all the pics ;) it was really so much fun with the superheroes the last few weeks of school. we literally SPAMMED all the must-do activities haha and i'm so glad for all the memories (and pictures!) that we're going to take away. SMU wouldn't have been the same without all these lovelies :') and especially my favourite boy hehe. who has finished his only exam??!!!! (whuttttt. i'm so jealous. but this is actually quite a refreshing experience for him to be more free than me haha. we are both relishing that feeling :p)

^^^ taken on the (first and) last day of his exams ^^^ 

super love how we always unintentionally come in colour-coordinated outfits :)

okie where shall i start, we did so many things! haha. all photos courtesy of SK's nice camera ;)

April fool's day was the last day of class together for us :) so glad that we had some similar mods, makes studying a lot less torturous when we're all in it together! took a photos around the library (second home...for them haha) and with the sweet cleaning auntie who always says hi to us at the toilet. i was so amazed last semester when i realised she actually recognised me? i always thought it was just a hi-bye sort of thing, but one day she started chatting with me and i was like 'whoa, she actually remembers me'. it's incredible, how she recognises all of us who spend time in the library. it's such a joy bumping into her whenever i visit the washroom :) 

last official day of school, and i didn't have class! but came to school specially for our campus green picnic x starry nite :))) haha so happy that we managed to have our picnic!! <3 thankful for the skies which held up while we had our picnic. the weather was simply perfect, and we even had a slight breeze! it only started drizzling towards the end and we managed to scramble and finish up all our food (Y) yummy sushi and chicken! always love these cold storage staples ^^

this year's starry nite was a HUGE eye-opening experience for me!!! haha this was like my third time at starry night, but the first time i actually ventured out of the big steps area. it was like WOW. hahaha let's just say that now i know why the big steps area feels pretty dead during starry nite :P

the very next day, i travelled down to school for an even more absurd reason!! haha okay not absurd la :P it was to support my funny darling in his 'closing time' video :P shall not put it up here bcos he'll be mortified. haha but it was an epic-ly funny experience. LOL :P finally met up with thad as well! who has been MIA-ing since who-knows-when. and sam brought a yummy bottle of sweet wine which we polished off over a good time catching up :) went to each rochor beancurd as well!!! okay i only koped a bit, but gosh, i've really missed it! haha kinda craving it again now that I'm typing this...

the next week was the study week, but when you're in the last semester...you kinda don't really feel like studying. I'M SO HAPPY THAT I HAVE NO ACCOUNTING MODS THIS SEM. wheeeee. it feels awesome haha. though having to study is still quite a sian feeling, but no accounting mods? seeing jiayee & rach study (oops sorry girls xP), makes me so relieved that i pushed everything to the previous semester. that was badddd. but now, it's totally worth it haha. went to eat lunch at The Basement Cafe in school, and for the first time in a long while, we had full attendance!!!!!! :) :) :) super duper happy!! gosh i was searching through our past 4 years of photos, and i realised this photo and a couple more photos we took on this day are the ONLY photos that we have of the 7 of us. unbelievable!!!! O.O we obviously need to have more full-attendence gatherings. i'm so gonna miss them when we start work :'( we must really arrange more dinners/gatherings please. i'm so used to seeing them once every few days, or at least weeks. so much love for them <3 :) 

hehe and we went for Ben & Jerry's free cone day too!! yippee ^^ no idea whether we can do such things anymore when work starts (probably not...), so really glad that we managed to catch it this time! ate my favourite NEW YORK SUPER FUDGE CHUNK ;) haha think i order that at every free cone day (boring...haha but i like). the queue was way too long to go a second round though...and we were also too full from lunch.

^^^ last welfare drive^^^ 

it's so awesome that SMU always has such things going on. can't say no to free food! ;) this time the welfare was not thaaaat good, sadly. but glad that we got it anyway! plus there was a PhotoBooth for us to commemorate our last welfare ;) and a free movie ticket haha. 

still have one last photo from Loof! haha sk if you see this, upload to dropbox please? ^^ hehe. i'll update again when i've gotten the photo. four more days to goooo!

/edit

last day of study week at Loof! (: to celebrate the end of our week of (not-so-productive) mugging. time really flew past that week :P hahaha. almost full attendance except for jiayee who was not feeling well :(

Loof has a SUPER good happy hour btw!!! for those who need some convincing to scurry off work early... (just kidding). from 5pm-5.59pm, house pours, selected beer and spirits go for $5++ only!!! that is a really awesome deal! definitely one of the cheapest i've seen so far. and subsequently
$6++ from 6pm-6.59pm
$7++ from 7pm-7.59pm

so of course, early bird gets the worm ;)

the best part? you've gotta order these orgasmic Chilli Crab Cheese Fries ($14). these were THE BOMB. love cheese fries? check. love Chilli Crab (sauce)? check. the combination was simply fantastic! it had a delicious punchy flavour, with the melt-in-your-mouth cheese and luscious chilli crab sauce complementing the crisp fries to great effect.

Loof
331 North Bridge Road,
#03-07 Odeon Towers
Tel.: +65 9773 9304
Mon-Thu 5pm-1am
Fri, Sat & Eve of PH 5pm-3am
Closed on Sun

Table Manners

firstly, i've gotta say that this is one inaccessible place to get to. it's literally all the way at one end of Singapore and i didn't even know that Changi Business Park had a mall there! O.o haha sorry, sua ku but i really don't travel all the way to this part of Singapore alright. but the point here is Table Manners is worth the travelling. i absolutely LOVED every single thing we ordered, and there were so many items on the menu that we totally over-ordered for the four of us, and even ordered dessert and drinks on top of everything :p 

we started off with some bar snacks:

i'd heard so much about the mushroom fritters ($8) and we absolutely HAD to order them. and they were so delicious!!!! a very light batter on the outside that was not too oily housed lovely succulent mushrooms that stimulated our tastebuds with their pungency. 

the ebiko mussels ($9) were an absolute delight as well, with surprisingly quite a lot of flesh and generously slathered with the ebiko and some sort of dressing that had a lovely umami flavour.

while i felt the truffle chicken bites ($10) were of pretty good quality - Table Manners does its batters well, keeping it very crisp and light without being too oily, and the interior retains its natural juices, which is great! plus the truffle flavour was quite pronounced, which was a huge plus point - i did think they were still a pretty ordinary dish. perhaps it was because i was already quite full when i started on these though, so my judgement might be slightly impaired :p 

i was so disappointed when i heard that the Truffle Capellini was not available that day because it sounded divine!! but our other mains didn't disappoint ;)

the King's Burger ($20) is made for a monster with its scrumptious ingredients - bacon, onion relish, gherkins, cheddar cheese slices, sliced tomato, lettuce and topped with a sunny side up egg. the combination of all these ingredients produced a smorgasbord of flavours that went perfectly with each other. the truffle fries on the side was a a lovely touch and were pretty good! 

the TM Ribs ($36 for full rack) were reallyyyyy good! absolutely tender - the kind that falls off the bone when you poke it with the fork - and came with a side dish of potato wedges. i still prefer fries > wedges though!!

we also got the Norwegian Baked Salmon ($22) which was a baked just right, with a lightly crisp exterior and fluffy interior, and this sat atop a yummy mash jazzed up by a garlic miso mayo and tasty mushroom ragout! 

it's amazing how EVERY single dish at Table Manners was good, and what's better, their drinks are great too! part of the group that owns Bar Stories as well, which is known for their specialty bespoke cocktails, you can be assured of the quality of the drinks you can find at Table Manners too. you can choose from a list of sweet, spicy, bitter and sour cocktails, and there are even "gentlemen" drinks as well! 

my passionfruit martini was a winner with its tangy flavours and was wonderfully refreshing! loved how there was a slice of fruit in it as well ^^

the Ginger Lemongrass martini was exactly how mummy liked it - spicy. haha yikes >.< this is really an acquired taste i guess! imagine drinking ginger juice laced with alcohol. and a hint of tom yam (haha because of the lemongrass). this is exactly how this drink tasted.

the most visually-exciting drink we ordered was the rosemary cooler! it literally came with the herbs all sticking out, like a herb pot! lol!!! super interesting, and it was quite fascinating how the flavours of the rosemary were infused into the drink.

for those who wanna skip the alcohol, i highly recommend the Calamansi Rose mocktail ($9)!! i really liked how there were really fragrant, lightly sweet notes from the rose, and this was complemented the sourness from the calamansi.

during happy hour (8pm), all cocktails are priced at $13 and bar snacks are $6/7! super good deal!! 

we ended on a high note with the sea salt chocolate caramel tart ($7.50). it was small, but boy, it was GOOD. luscious smooth chocolate with hints of caramel and a tinge of salt that prevented it from being cloyingly sweet. 

such a satisfying meal that was totally worth the calories!!!! i would come back much more often, if only it wasn't so far away!

Table Manners

5 Changi Business Park Central 1

Changi City Point – The Oasis #01-68/69

Tel.: +65 6604 7669

Daily 11.30am-12midnight 

Relish

so it's back to school again! last year of university now. eight months since i stepped into SMU, and i'm back with mixed feelings. kinda bummed out that school has started once again, and i've got to get back into the studying-mode (not that i study super hard, but i still have to do work right :p and i'm taking THREE accounting mods this sem. boohoooooo :"( imma die xP). but also excited about this last year - my final lap of life as a student, to chase dreams and explore new things without worrying (too much) about the consequences, to take chances, to be young and silly, to maximize this one year to the fullest. i'm reaching the end of my student life, but now it's the start of a new year, and after that, it'll be the start of a whole new phase of life. exciting, definitely :) 

and the last two weeks before school started were simply bliss!! ^^ happiness for my heart (and tummy hahaha). with everyone ending internship, IT WAS TIME TO PLAY. totally enjoyed to our hearts' content! :) all these experiences, i don't know if we'll ever get it again once we start work. our last summer as students (not counting grad trip here). play play play!

(lots of photo credits to SK)

yayyy jiayee is back! ^^ complete with a new haircut and all :D i'm so tempted to cut my hair again!! but it always misbehaves >:( celebrated her homecoming with a sashimi outing!!!!! :) love standing sushi bar's promotional rates hehe. too good already. i don't think i had eaten much sashimi since i got back (and it had been almost 2 months already!) so i was equally excited hehe.

my gals ^^ big love!! <3 almost all of us now! 

we had dessert at ben & jerry's after that too!!! omg haven't eaten it for the longest time. missed it so much :D haha my tummy was SO HAPPY that day. 

darling and i finally had our haji lane date! ^^^ 

since we came back from europe, we've been trying to find new stuff to do in singapore. and actually there is really quite a bit to do in singapore! since the both of us had never been to haji lane prior to this (so noob right, i know), we decided to go there to explore :) it's really up to you whether you make the effort to find things to do and actually do it. unfortunately some activities do require spending, and being (pooooor) students, we can't always do everything we want. but i'm pretty glad that we had quite a number of fun dates where the activities were budget ones! ^^ only spend on food, which can really cost a bomb T.T but worth spending on ;)

haha like wine. SO E.X.P.E.N.S.I.V.E. in singapore, but we still decided to indulge anyway. i miss my cheap italian wines for <€5, and yet so good!!! we could get D.O.C. wines for that price, and it is the second-best grade already! imagine that. we went to FIV五 Izakaya Bar, where they have quite a number of good $5 deals on their drinks! - choose from a selection of housepour wines, asahi beer, sake, sochu, choya and housepour spirits. instead of getting drinks by the glass, we decided to get a bottle of their housepour wine instead for $30. (could buy like 5 bottles of wine in italy with that amount of money -.-'" miss it so much!!!!!) it wasn't very nice haha :p but really enjoyed just spending the time together drinking and chatting ^^ 

FIV五 Izakaya Bar

25 Cuppage Road, Cuppage Terrace 

Tel.: +65 6733 8097

we went to adventure cove!!!!! ^^ yay *\o/* i've been hearing so much about adventure cove and the SEA Aquarium since it opened and i was away on exchange. the initial plan was to go to the aquarium, but turns out that it's more expensive (i don't understand why) and we figured that there would be more things for us to do at the water theme park. and it was such a blast! don't have any pics from the theme park itself because we obviously weren't going to bring our cameras in to get soaked. haha. but it was good fun playing the whole day, spending time away from our phones and technology ;) LOVED the wave pool - i think that was the most hilarious part of the whole day where we just bobbed up and down and laughed like crazy until we swallowed so much water because we kept getting engulfed by the waves. and i tried "cliff" diving! omg scariest experience of my life :O but it was cool!!!! 

after our day of playing ^^ we were so hungry because we didn't eat anything since late morning. went for Carls' Jr for dinner!!!!! :D (my first time also, deprived again. hahaha. and it was soooooo good).

after that, us girls headed to sk's house for a sleepover! :) haha i have no idea how we managed to survive that, i was totally sleep-deprived. i was practically suffering from an on-off sleep debt for the whole of those two weeks. it was soooo fun! love how we spent the entire night up to around 3.30/4am just TALKING the entire time! hahahaha. sam was asking what we do during sleepovers, and he was whether we had that much to say. after the sleepover, i have to give a resounding 'YES!' hahaha. so amazed at the amount of things we could talk about. literally (and i'm not kidding) everything under the sun, totally jumping from one topic to another, and that could last us forever. i don't think we could have run out of things to say. we were just too exhausted and had to sleep haha. 

even better, we went for the Vintage Tea Party at House/Barracks to round off our sleepover date! ^^ omg it was sooooo good! i will do a post on that sometime :) the spread was amazingly good! totally didn't expect that. i was really glad that there was a good balance of sweet and savoury, and for $22++, it's really quite a good deal! hee, living the tai-tai life ;) must practice for the future :P lol. (a girl can dream haha)

my bestie is backkkkk! ^^ finally!!!! <3<3<3 both of us decked in happy yellow! (: a total coincidence! hehe. had so much fun chatting with her last week and catching up :)))) reminded me why we are best friends. haha we are SO similar. lol.

camwhored so much over those two days!! haha love these girls sooo much ^^ i've totally missed all this camwhoring. can only do this while we're young! ;) 

went running at henderson waves!! pardon the super cui face >.< having a terrible breakout phase :( i don't know whyyyy. anyone with a solution please give me some advice! :( it was such a good workout!!! running uphill is seriously damn tiring. haha my endurance for this is awful. but i enjoyed it! the views from the top of mount faber were a plus ^^ 

full hopers gathering!!!!! (: with none other than one of our fav activities (haha self-proclaimed) -- bbq at my place! :D so happy that we finally have a full outing :)))))) before it's scott's turn to explore the world (omg i wanna pack up and go again tooooo). so fun and hilarious spending the night chatting and laughing with them! we always have such such an amazing time together :) 

haha this is such a long post! and i still have something else, but that deserves a post of it's own ;) for everyone back in school for the last year, enjoy, and make the most of it! :))) looking forward to the year ahead ^^ 

Morton's Happy Hour

i'm so excited about this!!!! this was my second attempt coming to morton's :) the first time phail haha. finally got to try it, whee! :D their happy hour is on weekdays 5-7pm. do try it! it's quite an experience :)

i'm so happy with my chocolate martini! :) they have a few martinis at a special price of $12.95 during their happy hour. the chocolate martini had a generous amount of chocolate inside! a creamy chocolate flavour, with lots of little chocolate swirls floating on top, and a coat of chocolate lining the glass. a hint of absolut vodka, and this made the ultimate happy drink :D

jiayee ordered the lychee martini, which came with two lychees in it! hehe! i think they look so cute dont they! it was a really refreshing drink, loved it too!

AND AAAAAAAAAND THE BEST PART: morton's filet mignon sandwich! <3<3 every half an hour or so, the waitresses will come around with a tray of these lovely sandwiches (one each! dont be greedy. although i wish i could hehe). i loved the savoury-sweet slightly crisp bun, encasing a medium-rare steak. YUMMY!!!!!!

i am totally planning my next visit. take note, no flip flops and shorts though! the dress code is smart casual. and really, you dont want to be seen in this posh place in shorts & slippers anyway.

Morton's Bar

Mandarin Oriental Hotel L4

Tel.: +65 6339 3740

Mon-Sat 5pm-11pm

Sun 5pm-10pm

Beer Market

i had no idea what this place was about before i came here! apparently it's quite popular haha. and why wouldnt it be, when they have $2nett fries and wings during their happy hour?! :O :O :O there, you took a second look right! it's so amazingly cheap! haha. sadly we didnt go there during the happy hour though!!! >.< cos we went there on friday, and they dont have happy hour that day. haiya -.-

but i really have to say that their food was pretty good! although we didnt get their fries or wings, we loved all the other food we ordered! and they drank beer too, but i still dont like it. i tried them, still dont like the taste :/ although they do taste SLIGHTLY better if i gulp rather than sip it. but uh, haha not my cup of tea. i only drank it cos i was thirsty haha. there was this strawberry beer that was quite interesting though! btw sorry for the awful picture quality, it was so dark there :(

while waiting for mel to arrive, we ordered an appetizer - mushroom tempura ($10). initially i was sorta reluctant to order this because it sounded so unhealthy!!! ever since summer started, i've gotten fat :( boohooooo :( but let's not go off track haha, the deep fried mushrooms with honey mustard dressing were such a good way to whet our appetite! i suppose since it was mushrooms, it felt relatively light, and was piping hot inside with lovely juices that made it absolutely delectable!

we ordered two pizzas to share among the five of us. i loved the teriyaki chicken pizza ($17)!!!! i didnt have much expectations for this place cos i just thought they would probably serve regular bar grub that was only so-so, but i have to say i was really pleasantly surprised! :) the pizzas were freshly baked, with a beautifully crisp crust that was just the right thickness. the chicken was succulent and there was a really generous amount of teriyaki sauce :D

the parma ham pizza ($19) wasn't as outstanding as the teriyaki chicken one in my opinion, but that isn't to say that it wasnt good! in fact, it gave off this 'comfort food' vibe which i quite liked! it had a subtle flavour of smooth cheese and the slivers of parma ham were delicious.

that's all we ordered, plus a few bottles of beer. and it was quite a good amount for the 5 of us! :) definitely will come back one day for their happy hour!

Beer Market

3B River Valley Road #01-17/02-02

Clarke Quay

Tel.: +65 9661 8283

Sun-Thu 6pm-2am

Fri, Sat & Eve of PH 6am-3pm

Happy Hour: Mon-Thu (6pm-8pm) & Whole of Sunday