I Dream A Dream

After not touching this space for ages, I am finally back with a post.

After what seemed like almost a year ago, some things have changed in my life. New friendships forged, new working environment, new memories made, I felt I have grown up a little more than in the past.

I will be getting my results in 2 days' time, I am almost 100% confirmed that I will graduate no matter how bad my results are going to be. But still, there is still this tiny bit of me that is very nervous about it. I supposed this is pretty normal, right?

At this point in time, I am moving on to the next chapter of my life - the working life (supposedly) after graduation from university. What kind of job should I be looking out for? Which jobs are suitable for me? Plenty of such questions have been bugging me ever since I took up a 3-month contract job at a bank in July.

There are still many things that I wish to learn or do. For instance, completing my piano Grade 7 & 8 practical exams. I do not wish to give up at Grade 6, even though I haven't been playing since 2008 while I was preparing for my A'levels back then. Piano lessons these days are pretty expensive, I have been toying with the idea of continuing but I am not sure if I have the capability to pay the school fees upfront. At this age, I think it will be weird if my parents are still paying for my piano lessons.

Another thing that I have always been wanting to do is to take up another language. German? Italian? French? Japanese? Spanish? I think we should be equipped with a 3rd language in this current society in order to have more exposure to other cultures & job opportunities.

Besides, I have a soft spot for flowers. I think that the knowledge for flowers is very useful. Flowers have their own language & different meanings too. I came across this novel one day & felt very inspired by it. It was about this young woman Emmaline & her 3 other friends who co-own a wedding planning business. She is the one in-charge of the flowers & landscape designs. I can really feel her passion for floral designs & arrangements.

In the recent years, cafes have been sprouting all over Singapore, adding on to the bustling F&B scene. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a cafe of my own with its own floral theme & manage it together with the person I love? It will be like, killing two (or more) birds with one stone.

I look forward to have such opportunity in future, someday.

Meanwhile, I got to face the reality & start looking for a job to earn a stable income first.

wake me up when September ends

I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with my fellow colleagues at PBC Orchard. My supervisor is a very caring lady while my team mates are very helpful. I have forged new friendships during my 2+ months stint.

12 Sept:

RM Angeline knew that 13 Sept would be my last day with them. Thus she treated me to a meal at Pasta de Waraku at Changi Airport while we were out delivering mooncakes to her clients. So glad that I was given the chance to converse with her as she had taught me many things in different aspects.

love the mushrooms!!

this is GOOD (:

Last day at UOB 13 Sept:

My colleagues treated me to lunch at Din Tai Fung. So nice of them to ask what food do I like. In the end we went for almost a good 2-hour lunch. I had prepared rocky road dessert for them in return, while I gave presents to those whom I am closer with.

Little did I realized that my sweet colleagues prepared small gifts for me too. I was so touched! (:

(L-R): Man Ping, Claudia, Lee Kheng & Yu Hua

with Glad!

farewell gifts that I received from them ^^

Before I left the office, I managed to take some pictures with those who were still working:

Hello, Pigeon from PVR

Claudia from PVR

May from PV, my fellow book lover

Yu Hua, buddy from the same team

Wei Lun, IS - buddy for the day since we wore the same shade

Can't guess how old are they right?

with dear RM Angeline

 Boon & Liling's wedding 14 Sept:

female cousins (missing my sis who was in school!)

cousins whom I am closer with

pretty decorations

dessert table!

with cousin Boon, the Groom & his pretty wife

wedding dinner at Swissotel ballroom

Uni Peeps Meet-up Session 15 Sept:
We finally had our meet-up at Manhattan Market Tampines 1, after procrastinating for so long ever since WJ & SL were back from Korea. Received my souvenirs from Taiwan & Korea! (:

Steph, Shuling & Silin

CPF Buddies luncheon & Chillout with YK 16 Sept:
Met up with Rachel, Sherilyn & Kaden for lunch at our favourite Amoy Food Centre. S & I decided to get some desserts while I waited for YK to confirm our meeting place. Thanks to Kaden, we managed to try the really yummy strawberry tofu cheesecake & carrot cake. I love the former better because the taste was just right. As much as I dislike strawberry, I was craving for another piece. Haha.

YK & I decided to explore Robertson Quay & we settled for Smitten cafe as I read online that it has free wifi. However when we wanted to use our ipads to surf Net, the wireless seemed to be down, much to our exasperation. I doubt I would want to head back there in future.

Cafe Hopping 18 Sept:
Sherilyn & I decided to explore Ann Siang Hill for the hidden cafes tucked quietly in the area. I googled about Le Chocolat & we decided to give their rainbow cake at try. Much to my disappointment, the rainbow cake looked better than it is tasted. We preferred the hazelnut chocolate cake over the former. Plus the service was quite mediocre so we headed elsewhere to have our drinks & chill.

interior of the cafe

our cakes

So it was Group Therapy at Duxton area. I love the place there as it was very quiet & it provides free Wifi. Haha. As I was too full, I ordered Affagato, espresso shot with vanilla icecream. The service here was way better than Le Chocolat. The staff was very patient with me when I asked more for details about their drinks, because I cannot really take caffeine well.

my Affagato!

a photo with Sherilyn!

Mooncake Festival:
For this year, I received a super cute Doraemon mooncake from Yan. Much loves! Besides, parents bought durian & traditional mooncakes & my colleague gave me two traditional ones too. Sigh I think I need to slim down after eating so many.

Habitat Coffee 28 Sept:
First visit to this cafe located at Upper Thomson area with YK. Ordered their tuna aglio olio, truffle fries & the Shrooms. Service was above average & the food were quite tasty! (: Took a stroll to explore the area a little & found a korean restaurant nearby, probably would try that sometime soon.

Okada Coffee

My 2nd visit to this pretty quaint Japanese cafe tucked away in 100AM at Tanjong Pagar. Partly because YK's cousin is working there while waiting for his Uni to start.

Hence we ordered a matcha cake, blueberry apple tart, cheesecake & the pudding :D

cakes for our tea!

orange flavoured cake which were on the house (:

hazelnut latte - by YK's cousin

group photo outside Icon Village

Meet up soon my girls! Thankful that we become closer after our 2nd year in Uni (:

We went Montigo before it becomes mainstream!

28th-29th May

A super long post:

Words couldn't describe the moment when I laid my eyes on the scenery when we alighted from the shuttle bus. The resort was sparkling clean with friendly resort staff greeting us with wet towels & ice tea.

As we boarded the 8am ferry from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal & arrived at Nongsapura Terminal after 45 minutes, the staff allowed us to check-in early. That's so nice of them! They assisted us in booking return tickets back to Singapore too.

Montigo provides free shuttle service from Nongsapura to their resort! (:

the reception

picturesque view of Montigo 

my travelling companions - YK, Gab & Darin

Montigo provides buggy service around the resort. We took one to our villa - no.9, the Hilltop Villa. The villa was a 3-storey with an infinity swimming pool. The first level is the living room with kitchen attached, & the swimming pool with outdoor dining table. Second level is our bedrooms while the third level is an open space, suitable for BBQ.

villa no.9

1st level - living room, kitchen, outdoor area

room no.1

room no.2

3rd level - the outdoor area

this was how windy it was then!

doing what we do best

As our stay is 2D1N, we went Nagoya in the late morning after checking in. What's a Batam trip without A&W? Shared a 2 piece chicken meal & ice-cream waffle with YK. Walked around after that to look for a decent place for massage.

it's so fluffy!

We found this place offering pretty decent prices for several types of services, ranging from manicures to spas. Basically it is an all-in-one place for men & women. If I am not wrong it is called Eska Wellness Spa Massage & Salon, located rather near Nagoya Mall! Gab & I decided on a 1.5hrs of Aromatherapy Body Massage ($22) and Express Manicure ($8).

at Eska after our massage

As the shuttle bus took us back to the resort, we bought Indonesian food for our dinner. The Sun was pretty good thus we changed into our swim wear to take photos with the sunset as the backdrop! Dinner by the sunset view with Moet champagne & a table of good food with friends, it was divine.

in our swimwear 

Indonesian food for dinner. what a spread!

Moet by the pool

 The resort offered Wii for us to play too, that's so considerate of them! We played "beer pong" with the 6 cans of beer that we bought from the supermarket earlier. I managed to sleep pretty well despite staying in such a large place. This goes to show how comfy our villa was!

We woke up the next morning for our complimentary breakfast at Tadd's! (: It was a beautiful indo-style place that is near the kids' playground.

we chose the alfresco area

complimentary toasts & croissants

my American breakfast - scrambled eggs style ^^

the playground near the dining area

with YK (spot my Orly pink manicure I did at Eska!)

After the rather heavy breakfast, we went back to the villa for a swim & pack our stuff before checking out. The staff were very kind to let us extend our check-out to 2pm. After which, we headed back to Tadd's for lunch before leaving Montigo for our ferry back to Singapore.

miss the swimming pool!

they even sell kuehs :D

blue & white - Montigo's colour

I looked so tired here.

Gab doubled up as our translator too!

my hearty Indonesian lunch - it's really delicious!

YK's lunch - highly recommended!

some kuehs to end off the sumptuous lunch

YK & I bought kueh lapis from Montigo back to Singapore for our families. Overall, though we stayed for only a night at Montigo, we certainly enjoyed our stay there. Booking was made easy through hotels.com & we managed to arrange for transport to the resort. Even though some facilities weren't ready, but we had fun planning & finding stuff to do. Best of all, the resort has free WiFi service.

I am very glad that we went Montigo before it becomes mainstream! :P