broylim / catalog

誕生日おめでとう、Rini~~

To show y’all people who can’t read Japanese, the title says “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Rini~~” YES!! You learnt something new didn’t you? :)

Yesterday, I was honored to be the photographer of Rini’s birthday party held at SAFRA Mt Faber’s K-box~ I think that SAFRA is a little difficult to access though because it’s stuck somewhere in an isolated area that even in daytime, you don’t really see many cars driving by. Odd~

But anyway~

Before heading over to meet Rini, Jia Yi, Chjia Mean and *sigh*, I met up with Daryl, Wei Guang, Pei Quan and Chanel at VivoCity to do our extremely last minute shopping. Don’t be blaming us, Rini~ Because we seriously had no clue what to get for you for your birthday.

Had dinner at Carl’s Jr (omygod all the calories :(~) and I went to PageOne to grab a deck of tarot cards for Rini’s birthday present. Hopefully she likes it and will do a reading for me one day…

After which, we went over to SAFRA. Let’s start the film rollin’~

The K-box at SAFRA is modeled after a train cabin or something. Nowadays, each K-box has their own themes. If I didn’t remember wrongly, Jurong’s SAFRA is modeled after a Chinatown-ish feel which I don’t really like. Some rooms have windows and during daytime, it’s extremely annoying. Anyway, looks like K-box made their menu so much prettier!

The host of the event, Rini!! In case you don’t know who she is, she’s been my classmate since Poly Year 1 and she is an amazing artist! Oh yes~ I forgot to mention that she brought her game designer friend, Matthew, along too. Good thing we didn’t talk about game designing because I’m so through with that!

Pei Quan singing~ Just to add, we actually videoed down each of us singing a particular song. Meant to be a present for Rini; kinda like a song-video tribute. Will be uploading them on Facebook once I have the time~ It was really fun because it’s my first time videoing so much using my 550D and it’s the first time it showed me an overheat icon! Not that I’m happy it overheated but there’s always a first.

I didn’t tell Chjia Mean I took this picture but luckily for him and unluckily for me, this picture ain’t unglam. :(

We bought this Japanese Strawberry Cheesecake cake at VivoCity’s Bakerzin. They have really pretty cakes! We were meant to get a huge 8” tart at the Japanese tart store but then they said we had to pre-order first and we were apparently too late so we went for this instead. Nevertheless, it was good though!

Rini was obviously very surprised when she saw the cake because…

Chanel and her boyfriend were the ones who walked in to surprise her! Chanel wasn’t meant to join us for the K-session because she left after we met her at Vivo but she held onto the cake. When some of the guys suddenly disappeared and came in with the cake along with the 2 new guests, Rini was surprised. Was a pity Chanel and her boyfriend didn’t stay throughout.

Group shot yeah!!

Singing the birthday song…

Blowing out the candles… Sigh~ I really should have bought the external flash because a lot of my photos yesterday night were mediocre. Slightly disappointed…

Cutting the cake. Did I mention that we were meant to get 21 small candles for this cake? But considering that the cake is way too small to hold so many candles, we dropped that idea. Should have gotten relightable candles~ Rini, you’re spared for this year.

Wei Guang and Jia Yi. Jia Yi told me he’s gained a lot of weight since he went into the army. Must be all the muscle mass~ Too bad mine’s all *sigh~* More cereals for breakfast and dinner…

Next time you go to K, try their Mango Yogurt if you haven’t! It’s really good and refreshing and makes a good photo!

The cake is served~ Looks like a strawberry shortcake, no?

Failed group shot because firstly, I’m out of focus and secondly, my head’s too big!

Enjoying the tiny cake filled with best wishes for the birthday girl… This is what you get when your shutter speed’s too slow; ghostly images~

Matthew singing a Beatles song. Took this picture because just look at them!! Don’t you find that Matthew look just like one of the singers on TV?!

Second drink; Lemon Honey!!

I kinda like this shot because it’s not posed and it’s a genuine, happy smile. :)

Photo of me and Rini~ I have no idea why my eyes look so small in so many photos yesterday night.

Well just so you know, I didn’t get him to pose like this!! He wanted to do this hoochie pose himself and of course, I’ll be glad to photograph it!

Epic mess on the table! I love the stirrers because they seem to “glow” in the dark! Really pretty~

Talk about scandalous… :P

This is how the photos will turn out like without flash! Extremely blue and ghostly, like Daryl over here!!

And the last photo of the day is used to compare how short Rini is compared to her friend who’s like 1 and a half heads taller than her. Well, not to say that I’m tall too but you know, we’re all short people and I love it anyway~

That basically marks the end of MY night because after K, the rest of them went clubbing. Considering that I’m not a club kinda person plus I was conveniently inappropriate dressed (like the usual fashion disaster I am with shorts and sandals), I went home on my own and good thing there were transportations back home! Save money!!

Shall end this post here. Happy birthday Rini, again!! Stay happy and continue to do what you believe is right~ Hope you enjoy your night and remember to master the tarot cards soon so you can do a reading for me~ :) 

04. Family dinner at some industrial area ~Lunar New Year~

YEAH!! I’m finally at the last post for the 4 days worth of celebrating Lunar New Year!! I know it’s way overdue but it’s better than not blogging about it at all, no?

And to all the blogs that I go to every day without fail, please update something because I want to read something when I’m bored~ I see the same old posts all the time and I get sad. Hint hint!!

Anyway, I doubt this will REALLY be the last of the Lunar New Year that you’ll see here because I’m going to my sergeant major’s house to do some visiting with the rest of my camp mates at 5:00pm. I can leave my home at around 4:55pm if you get what I mean. :)

Without further ado~ Pictures of the fourth day of the Lunar New Year WAR!! :)

I think old people do not really remember their birthdays since birthdays, I guess, were not really celebrated by the olden generations as much as we do nowadays so every year, we will just pick a convenient date where we can celebrate our grandfather’s birthday. We would normally go out for dinner and stuff so yeap. This year’s no exception. Before I left the house, I took this photo of the potted cactus outside my door because the rabbits made of red packets are so funny. Courtesy of Nick and Leon.

My family was pretty late because my father was dragging and taking his own sweet time. Not to mention WOMANIZER came to my house again for the third consecutive day for whatever reason. Maybe he’s been womanizing so much he has no money to get a house? Who cares!! So when we finally arrived, everyone was like “WEI!! LATE ALREADY LAR~” or something like that. And I just realized that Sheena actually put on colored contact lenses. Not really liking the lenses’ design but I love this photo~

The kids/teenagers table. And like all other family dinner, we always get the crappy food. Oh well~ That’s for not paying for your meals. At least this time, we get soft drinks and a better table cloth as compared to my grandma’s birthday. Let’s see….. http://broylim.tumblr.com/post/647045570/dinner-with-my-family Yeap! This is it! Flies and all and smokers and whatnots~ 

Even though this place is located in an industrial area just a 10 minutes walk away from Sheena’s house, it’s so much cleaner and more hygienic. Most importantly, it was relatively quiet so we basically had the whole place to ourselves (with a couple of strangers).

Laura enjoying her Pepsi. The drinks cost a whooping $1.50!! At least it’s refillable but $1.50 for a glass of soft drink? You can get ONE WHOLE BOTTLE with that money!

One of my cousins who I don’t really feature a lot, Guo Qiang. He’s my eldest aunt’s son and yeap. He’s really tall and really dark!! I may even look younger than him. What do you think? :)

iPhoning and Xperia-ing away while waiting for our food to arrive…

Laura and her not-so-glam smile.

The soft drinks!! Normally when we eat at these coffee houses or eateries, there will be this woman who comes along to take our orders for drinks but for this place, they will just give you either Pepsi or Orange. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because it helps fickle people like myself make up my bloody mind. But on the other hand, if you have a craving for a particular beverage, then that’s too bad!

Rena showing off her braces and her starry bracelet which is actually a hair band. Sometimes, I wonder why people design hair bands like this because won’t it trap the hair and make it a living hell to remove it? I’m not sure~ I never tied my hair before~

This photo was taken after we had our 鱼生 (translates to “raw fish” or better known as sashimi). Basically, it’s like a big plate of sashimi salad where everyone in the family gets to toss using chopsticks. The video’s on facebook if you are interested to see what the whole process is like. The person who prepared our 鱼生 was really nice but he talks a little too much.

I think she’s got something stuck in her braces.

The adult/kids-that-are-too-young-to-feed-themselves table. Well, they normally get the better food but I don’t really care. My father’s wearing the Carneyvale shirt that I got him from GAMBIT because no one wanted that shirt. What a pity, no? It’s a cute shirt. I would wear it if it was a couple of sizes smaller.

So if you are interested in bringing your family to an industrial area for a meal, you can come to this place. I don’t know the exact address but oh well~ 

The aftermath of the 鱼生. From here, you can derive that the salad consists of cucumbers, peanuts, carrots and some other things on top of the few, miserable slices of sashimi.

Sheena’s Hello Kitty organizer which she uses to keep track of her work place’s daily sales. I asked her why she bothers to do it and she said that her boss promised her that if she can hit a certain target, then she will get some incentives. Coolness~

And finally~ The first dish; Kang Kong! Not a huge fan of kang kong because I prefer veggies with bigger leaves but I’ll have it anyway. Better than nothing. This kang kong was not bad~ Crunchy and greasy (in a good way).

Qiang helping himself with the kang kong. I think I actually got to eat quite a good portion that day because hungry ghost Nick wasn’t at our table. Normally, he would clear the plates before I’m done with taking the photos of the food. At least everyone was co-operative that day. :)

This is Vanessa, my 小姑’s eldest child. I realized that I don’t really feature her as well so here she is, eating her veggies.

The next dish. Is this fish? I think it was… It’s fish covered with cereal and I love the cereal! Anything with that kind of cereal (be it prawns, crabs, whatever) is nice! I can just have that cereal because it’s so buttery and heavenly! The fish is good~ Sheena’s “favorite” dish!

Lemon chicken. Nothing special other than the fact that this is a good photo.

I think this was one of the best dishes of the day! Pork in sweet sauce! The pork is bone-free, unlike the ribs you have outside that makes eating it such a chore. The meat is really tender, unlike some places where the meat chews like rubber. The sauce is fantastic! I like!!

Tofu and veggies. I don’t really like cooked cabbage because it’s slimy and I don’t like slimy. But the mushrooms and tofus are good! 

Through dinner, Sheena’s Pepsi got more and more diluted. Just look at the color!!

And the final dish; CRAB!! I think this is butter crab but I don’t really care because I had a bit only. As usual, Vera would fight for the pincers and I’ll just eat the shelly parts. The crab was pathetically tiny and I don’t think I would have crabs at this place. Notice that the plate isn’t really on the table? That’s because Leon had to snatch the plate for me to take the picture before everyone snatch my subject away.

By small, I mean REALLY SMALL!! The pincers are only the length of your index fingers! Where’s the satisfaction from eating such a small crab?

Leon playing with his food.

Shortly after we were done with the crab, Sheena had to report for work. In fact, she was terribly late for work because of this dinner. Poor her~ Have to work on weekends and during the new year. So, Rena and I saw her to the road to catch a cab and on the way, we had lots of fun snapping cam-whorish pictures. :P

Sheena waiting for the cab but to no avail. Probably because she looks scary… Probably because the cab drivers think we are playing a fool because I was walking around with a camera on a tripod. Who knows?

We were doing everything but waiting for a cab. :P

Seriously… I look like a little boy… :( But that’s not a bad thing, yes? :)

So while Sheena was frantically waiting for her job-saver to arrive, Rena and I attempted to take jump shots but we failed. :P What we got instead was a ghostly Rena.

This road leads to Ang Mo Kio, in case you’re wondering.

Sheena got tired of cabs rejecting her so we walked a little farther down to try our luck again. In order to make the cab drivers less suspicious of my tripod and camera, I stood slightly farther away from them so that I won’t attract unnecessary attention, like what Rena’s doing here.

Sheena looks like a ghost.

One of Rena’s famous poses, “I’m a waitress”.

Shooting at night is fun because you always get opportunities to shoot the more artistic side of light, like how cars zoom past your camera to create these amazing streaks of light.

When Sheena finally got a cab, Rena and I started to head back to the coffee house to rendezvous with the rest of the family, until Laura came over to see what we were doing and we started to cam-whore all over again~

Funny faces~ For once, Rena looks more glam than me.

We tried shooting solo shots! Laura’s pose is nice but her right hand seems a bit stiff. Did I mention that it was extremely windy by the road and that we always had constant wind in our hair? I was really fun to shoot our hair flying madly. Well, I don’t have much hair to begin with but…

Rena’s solo shot was more of her crazy personality.

And we’re back!! After cam-whoring, we went back and my family was about to leave. So before that, we tried to take family portraits since we don’t really get the chance to go out together as one whole family often. Laura snatched the shot with her big nose.

This was actually a test shot. Somehow, I feel that during test shots, the people are more relaxed because they know they can do all sorts of stupid things and that’s when their personality and character really shine. Maybe I should tell them that I’m always doing test shots to get their real emotions.

This is the first time Vera can give me something good! Her long hair made her look slimmer and the way she puts her arm by her hips and the way she positioned her clutch made her look so much slimmer. Her 3/4 “cheat” to the camera also worked in her advantage. If she arched her back a little bit more, she will get more curves and it will reduce her size even further!! Now that’s a tip for y’all if you want to look less of your weight in photos~ :)

My family~ Had Rena to take this photo using the camera+tripod+control. The control is such a magnificent invention because it gives people who don’t know how to use the DSLR less of a hellish time when it comes to helping me take portraits. Just hit the button and you get a good picture!! :)

Leon, Vera, Laura and Rena. I really loved the colors of the shots~

My 小姑’s family as well as my grandparents. And yes!! My grandma’s eyes are opened even though she looks a bit lost in the picture! When I get my printer, I’m so going to develop these family portraits and give it to them as gifts~

The whole family, less Sheena because she abandoned us to go to work. :( Kaka helped us take this photo using the controller. Really love this photograph~

One of the reasons why Sheena went to work so late was because she thought she had to stay for the portrait taking. I had no clue who told her about it but oh well~ She left anyways. So I told her that I will photoshop her face in. This is the first version where she snatches the limelight.

Let’s play “Spot the Sheena”. Can you see her? I did my best to make her fit into the lighting but that was about the best I could do. If you’re sharp enough, you can immediately tell that she don’t belong in the picture at all~ 

Anyway, there are some who asked me why I picked this picture of her. Firstly, because she looks FUNNY!! Secondly, because it’s about the only face-on photo I can find of her that fits into this family portrait. I know very well that she will not give such a hideous smile during such an important photo but… 

WHO CARES!! :P It’s not me! :P I’m just living to my reputation of taking unglam shots!

My aunt was complaining why we kept taking photos in front of someone else’s car as opposed to hers so I took this picture of her and my uncle to make her happier. Maybe you should try buying Toto or 4D with those numbers. :P

Xander and Xavier (Banana~ In pajamas~) taking a photo with their family car.

And to end the post, Aik Hin and Vera~ I think their faces appear a lot on my blog and I think I’m like their official photographer because I have SO MANY of their shots together. -_-“ 

“I’m your biggest fan I’ll follow you until you love me… Papa~ Paparazzi~~”

Maybe if I don’t become a photographer, I can go be a paparazzi because I’m so damn good at it! :P But nah~ Singapore is a bad place for paparazzi because the news are boring.

That marks the 4th day of the Lunar New Year celebration and probably the last which I celebrate with my family for this year. Hopefully, next year’s would be so much more fun and hopefully by then, I will have new photography toys to play with to get even better shots!!

Imma go find something to entertain myself while I wait to go to my sergeant major’s house. Going to take pictures so stay tuned yes? Because I’ll probably not post the photos on facebook. :) 

Christmas 2010 Part III - Happy birthday SHEENA!!

PART III!!

Well, this is not so much a Christmas celebration but hey~ It still falls on Christmas, until midnight…

It’s my cousin’s, Sheena’s, birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHEENA!!

After meeting my friends for dinner, I headed down to Downtown East’s (yes, scary~) Costa Sands Resort to meet up with my family for Sheena’s birthday celebration. Her birthday officially falls on December 26th (today!!) but since young, she has been taking advantage of Christmas to celebrate her special day but who’s complainin’~

I arrived pretty late. In fact, the whole lot of them were waiting for me for the cake cutting “ceremony”! I felt like some VIP~ :P But I guess they just want me to take pictures of them so here are the pictures!!

Things happened pretty quickly after I’ve arrived. The cake was taken out, everyone got into their positions just outside the chalet and my cousin, Laura and her boyfriend, Yong Xiang, armed themselves with party sprays. Ain’t their smile mischievous?

And we certainly did not waste time lighting the candles on this humongous cake! CAKE CAKE CAKE!!

And here’s the birthday girl~ The cousin I played with since young and the eldest child of my family.

Sheena and Rena~ Anyway, the next series of photos will be very group-photo-ish because everyone wants a picture with the cake… I mean the birthday girl… :P

Unglam!! 

A shot where I took from the top of the table showing everyone surrounding the cake~

No, she is not making her wish yet. I think she is just happening to blink in this picture.

Sheena and her family… Minus a particular egomaniac…

Sheena and my family, along with my siblings lovers…

Sheena and my aunt + cousin (who looks really unpleased in this picture for some unknown reason…)

Sheena and her family with more people this time round. Well, if you study some of the body language, you can tell that some of them are uncomfortable in this picture but I shan’t go into that because it almost ruined the night; no thanks to someone and Mahjong…

Notice the candle on the left, it was melting to nothing because we were busy taking pictures of everyone… :P

The sisters… The Powerpuff Girls!! :P

Sheena and my 小姑 (aunt). Since young, my 小姑 has been doting Sheena, almost treating her like her own daughter.

Sheena and my 小姑’s family. Look at how cute Xander’s smile is!!

US!!

And finally, Sheena blew out the candles… Or at least what’s left of them…

My father brought these confetti thingies and when Sheena blew out the candles, all hell broke loose beautifully~

Sheena with confetti in her hair.

My father had another canister of that confetti and he released that for this picture. Pretty!! Sheena is getting rid of the melted candle, now wax, on the cake.

Cutting the cake~

Sheena and her boyfriend serving the cake.

Leon had party streamers sprayed all over his back. Good thing as a cameraman, you are normally granted immunity from all these kind of dirty, messy affairs because no one wants to pay for your broken equipment, yes? :)

Yong Xiang messing with Laura’s already messed up hair. Speaking of which, I’m going to go on a photo shoot with this lovely couple this coming Wednesday! We’re still discussing which place to go but hopefully, the weather will be nice. It’s really stressful because this is going to be the first photo shoot that I’m going to do purely FOR FUN! But this time, I’m treating them like real clients… Can’t mess up!!

Leon and his girlfriend. I took 3 shots of him and you can see no eyes in all 3 shots. -_-“

When we were done with the outdoors, we went into the chalet to chill out and use the toilet (how cool is that?!). Took this picture in the toilet using the mirror. Vera’s position is slightly disturbing…

And the birthday girl came along…

Vera washing her legs.

I love this shot of Rena~ I was trying to teach her how to use the camera but she is so difficult to teach~ :P

So yesterday night, a few of us stayed over at the chalet, including me. Woke up at around 2pm this afternoon. It’s been awhile since I actually slept past 1pm but we were all so tired! We only got to sleep at around 4am in the morning because there were people smoking in the room, making noise, playing cards and mahjong, etc. The smoking in the room affair kinda made my chest hurt but oh well~ Took this picture of Rena in the room with the curtains drawn.

The lighting from the curtain kinda inspired me to take this silhouette photo of Rena but she’s such a bad model… -_-” Her pose looks like an uninspired teapot. :P

At least this is slightly better but still funny… :P This photo somehow made her legs look really slender though.

Tried playing with the light from the curtain and her face is funny, as usual…

YEAP!! That’s all that I have for this year’s 3 parts Christmas special! Finally done with blogging all these pictures because I’m getting a little tired from the typing but I still want to document all these things down so next year, I can come back and read and see if I can top this fantastic Christmas in the future!

OKAY!! Off to watch Koda Kumi’s UNIVERSE concert!!

The day I went “bald”…

Botak: NO HAIR AT ALL. So get your vocabulary right, people! I have short hair, not NO HAIR! And~ Stop touching my head because it’s starting to hurt already!

Okay~ So today, I went to get my hair cut so I won’t have to suffer contamination from shared blades and have my hair messed up by barbers who just want to get the job done. Furthermore, it’s free so why waste it right? Read on to see my new look!

Besides getting my hair cut, my family went out for dinner to celebrate an advance Fathers’ Day and my father’s birthday at Bliss; the place where Rena (my cousin) works. We were out of ideas on where to go because Singapore is only that big and we have basically tried all that there is (cheap ones, of course~). 

With me going to exile island on Monday and my sister going to Malaysia/Australia during my father’s birthday, we decided to advance the celebration so that it would be fairer for him. Otherwise, who else is going to celebrate his birthday? See~ We’re so kind. It would be nice if deeds were reciprocated though…

Pictures!!

Rena was our waitress today (surprise surprise!) This is the first time I actually had a meal at her restaurant and the second time I witnessed her working.

Well, the menu looks pretty attractive (as in the selections, not the menu itself) but that’s just the beginning…

Rena taking our orders. Having a relative working at a restaurant is actually quite a good thing because we get honest opinions and suggestions on what food is good and bad. We didn’t get any discount though so that was a boo-boo.

Rena posing for the camera. Good thing the restaurant wasn’t really busy so she had lots of time to hang out with us. That’s good customer service; you make yourself feel at home. We certainly did~ :P

Vera looking through the menu while sticking out her tongue…

Nick’s boobs look pretty disturbing in this picture… :S

Taking orders…

Introducing the menu… Not many waiters/waitresses do that nowadays. They will just let you choose. At least Rena is doing it because she’s family~ :P 

In case you didn’t know, Bliss is located in Punggol Park somewhere beside the lake. It normally operates till quite late at night so you can actually come here for a bite or a drink. I believe their wine selection is quite huge~ You also get to choose whether to sit outside, inside or at the dock (not shown in this picture).

Rena serving us the soup. I bet when she sees this entry, it would feel funny because your job is being documented somewhere. :P 

The soup of the day was chicken soup and it came along with this slice of bread. It’s a pity that the soup only had like one or two miserable pieces of chicken. It was okay though.

I had already started on my soup and the lovebirds were still flipping through the menu.

Vera had this mango drink with mint leaves. I haven’t tried it so I have no idea how it tasted like but apparently, it should be good. Reminds me of the mango yoghurt Wei Jie had at K-box the other day. Speaking of Wei Jie, he should be in camp now already… Wonder how’s life there… :S

This chicken with cheese and other random garnish belongs to Vera. I forgot what the actual name is called. The chicken tasted a little funny to me.

Some of us ordered set meals and along with the sets, we were given this iced lemon tea and I must say that it’s the weirdest, funniest and probably the worst iced lemon tea I’ve ever had! It tastes powdery and is really thick. Vera and Aik Hin said it tasted like milk tea. When I asked Rena, she said the tea is home-made and she has no idea what goes in it. It’s not disgusting but it’s just plain weird!! Have you seen iced lemon tea with tea THAT THICK?

Probably one of the best food photos of tonight; Leon’s dory fish with rice. Rena recommended the dory fish because she said it’s nice and Leon gave it a try. I had a bit of the fish and it’s not unpleasant. The layout of the dish is visually appealing too~

This is not exactly visually appealing from this angle but Aik Hin had this chicken thingie. No idea how it tastes like.

Seafood baked rice~ I should have gotten this because it looks so cheesy! Nick enjoyed it very much, considering how he attacked the oysters. 

And finally, this is what I had for dinner; steak~ It’s probably the biggest slice of steak I had though it’s not necessarily the best. It’s served with that miserable bit of cheese on top (If you compare that to the cheese on the chicken I had at New York New York, they might as well not put the cheese on the steak!), some potatoes, onions and sweet corn. Some greens would definitely bring some life to this dish. The steak is mediocre but I love the portion~ Rena recommended this to me but I don’t see the sparkle in this dish.

It’s not a birthday celebration without cake and sadly, there wasn’t any cake left in the restaurant. So, we settled for a small Oreo mudpie with a candle for our dad. Another one of Rena’s recommendations.

And we sang the birthday song while my dad was busy shielding the candle flame.

I kinda love this shot~

When he’s about to blow off the flame…

Our family portrait~ And this is the first time I’m appearing in this entry “bald”!

And a second family portrait but this time, Rena joined us in the picture~ :P

Attacking the mudpie…

Vera and I decided to take pictures together… That’s my new spectacles by the way. Still getting used to it though.

“I’ll eat you up!!”

Prior to dinner, we went to get myself my non-camera phone; the Nokia 1661. I actually don’t really fancy this phone but it’s one of the four choices that I had. The design is simplistic but the functions are horrible. Oh well~ At least it’s a phone that I can use to SMS and call~ Considering it’s price tag of 52 dollars (with an additional original Nokia battery included), it’s actually quite a steal~

I’m gonna miss my E63 White baby. :( I really dread using the 1661 because the screen is just screaming “PIXELS! PIXELS!” at me! The pixels are huge and really disturbing~ Hopefully the phone will grow on me. One advantage is that it’s damn light though; almost feel like nothing in my hands. Oh well~ Beggars can’t be choosers. At least the design is not bad. Did I complain about the buttons? They are hard to press!! Okay~ I shall stop bitchin’ about my new phone…

Today’s my second last day of being free~ On Monday, I’m going to be gone~ At least for 2 weeks before I come out again just to be captured shortly after. Why can’t NS be shorter? Why can’t it be a choice for us whether we want to go or not? Oh well~ Bitchin’ about it won’t change anything~ I’ll just go in and treat it as a camp and I hope I’ll enjoy it.

Besides, what’s the worst that can happen right? There are people like me, or even worse than me out there, so why should I be afraid?

I’m not afraid anymore… :)

To end, my new look!!

20th birthday…

My birthday was more or less salvaged on the day itself because something bad happened at night and I shall not put it here because it’s so disappointing.

But nevertheless, I still enjoyed my birthday because everything is fixed. Plus, an added bonus, my fatty friends decided to drop by to give me a surprise (though I have to teach them how to come over… :P)

30 pictures in this post today! Are you ready? 

This year is the Year of CAKES! My friends all decided to get me cakes for my birthday! Alvin got me a box of cakes that comes in 5 small cups (like tiramisu cups) in 5 different flavors. So far, I’ve ate 3 out of 5 and they are SO GOOD! Not to mention, they are pretty and the plastic containers can be recycled!

Alvin was the earliest to arrive, followed by Rini and Wayne who stopped at one bus stop before the one I told them to alight at. So, I had to go over to bring them over. That happened two years back when my friends came over; just that they got off one stop late. We started by playing Monopoly Deal; this addictive card game.

After awhile, the rest arrived and they played a bit of Guitar Hero (but much to many’s disappointment because it’s either the drums are faulty, or there are no batteries, or the mic is extremely off). Then after which, they tried Little Big Planet and it was fun to watch Ching Kai and Ben play together because they were “killing” each another.

Dinner was really random because I had no idea that these fatties were coming over today so Leon cooked some pasta with some clam soup as a base while my Kaka fried noodles. Good thing there was enough food because some fatties eat a lot… You know you know? :P Do you notice a pattern in the above picture? :P

Jum can actually fit his body on the arm rest of the sofa~ I have never tried that before so I have no idea whether I can do that… :|

And then, they decided to play Mahjong. Well, I never understood the rules and I would never bother trying to learn as well. I don’t like gambling…

Jum brought his twin brother along as well…

Maomao don’t want them to play Mahjong and he went to sit on the tiles… :P During Chinese New Year, when they were playing Mahjong, anyone who touched Maomao actually won? But I guess his powers weren’t working that day…

Does Maomao look like an Egyptian Sphinx? :P

Maomao likes to sit in places that are tight, for instance the Mahjong box or the dustpan. I don’t understand why he has this weird habit but yes…

Laura and I were waiting for Rena Lim to arrive and we were bored so we decided to take pictures. I told her to find the light with her face and this is what she did. -_-” Can’t wait till I get my DSLR~ I told her that when I get it, we shall go on a photo shoot! :D

Everyone was watching TV while waiting for the VIP (Very Important Pig) to arrive; Miss Rena Lim.

Them fatties bought me a cake from Prima Deli! I believe it’s called a Chocolate Fudge cake and it’s NICE!! They really took the “Gimme the cake!” seriously! :S I have never ever received cakes for my birthday ever in my 20 years of life (except from my father). Thanks a lot fatties!

So, Rena finally arrived from work and while waiting for the rest to gather for the cake cutting “ceremony”, Rena and Laura sat around to wait.

Funny shot, funny faces…

Yesterday night, when they were singing the birthday song to me, I was carrying Maomao throughout because you know, how should you be reacting when someone sings you a birthday song? I have no clue so I used Maomao as a “shield” to give me something to do~ :P At least Maomao behaved… 

So yes… There I was with a cat in my arms while the rest sang… :| I rather sing for an audience than an “audience” sing for me… It feels weird, no?

Beautiful and delicious cake with candles! Last year, the cake was filled with candles and this year, there were 2…

This is what we call a “No Neck monster” and that basically makes the picture look totally retarded or makes you look short. In this picture, it’s both.

See the difference? Neck and no neck… My head looks a bit big here and the proportions look a bit funny but oh well~ I’m not a model and I’m not the photographer of this picture~ (excuses excuses)

Birthdays are a good excuse to get family portraits taken…

HELLO FATTIES!

My cousins… Sheena is missing because she has to work (awww~). I was saying that we should leave a blank space so that I can photoshop Sheena in but the photographer (was it Leon?) forgot about it so oh well~

Aikhin, Vera and me… Prior to this blog entry, these pictures are already uploaded on facebook (YES! For more unglam photos of everyone, go to my facebook album to see the full collection!) and so, Sheena managed to comment and say that Maomao looks like my son~ :P

Blowing the candles… When I was in secondary school, none of my birthday wishes came true so I never made it a point to make any wishes because since they won’t come true, what’s the point? Furthermore, there are many instances when my birthday wishes go the other way and come back to bite me. But this year, I took the risk and made one anyway… It’s only 1 sentence but it means a lot to me… :)

I can cut cakes too though I prefer eating it. At least I can cut cakes so that they look nice~ Vera can’t do that! :P

Alvin makes his debut appearance on my blog~ :P

The look on my face… I have no idea why I had that look on my face… But the cake is nice~ Who cares!

Well, after the cake cutting and stuffing of our faces, it was around 11pm and most of them left to catch the last trains and buses. Laura stayed over at my house though, to help Vera dye her hair black and to gossip with us. I had to wake up at 5am this morning so I couldn’t accompany them for long.

Every year, I will get CDs of some form and this year, I got RESIDENT EVIL 5 GOLD EDITION!!! WEEEEEEE!!! That means I don’t have to go get those PSN cards to download the DLCs for the game! My sister, her boyfriend, my brother and cousins chipped in to get this fantastic present for me! 

I like the manual cover because Jill and Chris look so GOOD together! I love the colors too! Can’t wait to play the other expansions of RE5~ I shall try them later on~ :)

This year, I have not bought myself a birthday present. In fact, for whatever reasons, I would get presents for myself (like during Christmas, etc etc). 

Okay, actually, I did buy myself a 200 dollar birthday present…

ayumi hamasaki’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus”!! I can’t wait for it to arrive!

:D

Okay~ That’s the end of this entry~ I will be working for the next few days so I have no idea whether I will have the time or energy to blog but do check my twitter updates~ :D