Sugarbelle from The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle is such an inspiration!  She has this trademark way of decorating her cookies where she floods the design and outlines it with a harder icing consistency once the first layer is totally dried. I thought I’d give it a try.

With the aid of the holiday cookie cutters from my big box of Wilton cookie cutters, I came up with these:

Who knew making these cookies would take so many days!!

I prepared the batter on Tuesday night and it was already midnight when I was done, not possible for me to cut out the cookies and start baking!

Wednesday was cookie baking night and Thursday was decorating night (after the cookies have cooled). I used royal icing to decorate my cookies and managed to not get it too sickeningly sweet by adding two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice. For my royal icing, I used meringue powder instead of egg whites as it is just gross since the icing doesn’t actually get cooked so meringue powder works just as well!

So here comes the exciting part!! Decorating! I planned ahead what designs I wanted to use so out came the ipad and Sketchpro!

A rough sketch!

Santa! The peachy orange was quite a challenge to make.

Time for the greens.

Couldn’t be bothered to make the holly at the corner of the stocking as per the sketching.

Green icing for the wreath.

After completing all designs which required green, red and white.

With my ipad as guidance.

One teddy in the making!

The final product!

Close up of each and every design:

Mr. Gingerbread Man… with bit of the eye lost.

The Low Profile Snowman. (with tipped hat)

Christmas wreath…abit cacat.

Santa Blue Eyes.

Mrs. Gingerbread in a Santarina Outfit.

One of the more successful looking cookie…the christmas tree!

The stocking!

Cacat Candycane!

Another cacat  ornament.

Supposed to be a snowflake. *hides face* Now it’s a whimsical star.

Christmas Bell.. looked better in the sketching.

Teddy Christmas

The whole family of cookies! <3
I packed each and everyone of it into individual plastic bags and used my hair straightening iron to seal the bags. I strung a string around each bag and made them into ornaments for our christmas tree!

Voila!!

I can’t stop staring at the cookies whenever I pass by the tree.

Merry Christmas everyone!!! Hope you guys had delicious treats this holiday too!

To get us accustomed to the dos and don’ts of being on-call, we tag-call with a senior who will show us the ropes. I am very lucky because both my seniors were very patient and even let me have a go at doing some simple lacerated wounds. But I get tensed up easily and when we’re on-call, we’re expected to be doing these procedures at the bed side which means no comfy dental chair to work on and good posture just flies out the window. Just last night I was suturing a laceration wound and because the lighting was bad, the bed was so low I had to bend almost 90 degrees to finish up my work and each time I tried to stand up, it was almost impossible. You know like when you’ve done one too many sit-ups you just can’t do another one? Yeah imagine it in the reverse. I found it so hard to straighten back-up. There was a puddle of my sweat on the floor next to the patient’s bed. I’ll need those sweatbands for my next round of calls. Even in the clinics I can sweat a river during particularly difficult extractions.

My first trip to the red zone was quite an eye opener. We were supposed to tend to some wounds on a trauma patient’s chin area but we had to stand aside as the medical team was trying to resuscitate her. That was particularly scary especially seeing how it is done. My senior said that would take awhile so we went home first. And for the whole evening my senior did not call me….which means that the patient didn’t make it.

I’m babbling so much because what I am trying to say is that I have been busy hence the neglect here.

SO ANYWAY. I was in Manchester back in July for Mervyn’s graduation! And I think this is the first time photos from my Olympus E-PL2 are posted here.

Just trying to be artsy-fartsy with this round of photos.

Even though it was summer, the weather was still too cold for me!

A starbucks cafe, like it’s not a big deal there.

Palace Hotel was just opposite our hotel!

Oxford Road was also just behind our hotel!

The road that we were staying on was Oxford Road which was just a straight road down to Mervyn’s uni.

In Manchester, everywhere is within walking distance.

A rustic old street sign on a brick wall. <3

Why not!! (

Dad’s best impression of an old monkey.

Chinese visiting Chinatown.

Mervyn showed us the particularly dodgy establishments around the area. Somehow, Chinatown everywhere is associated with dodginess.

it looks as if this poor pigeon got shot. (

We arrived very early on Sunday morning and were just in time to see the remnants of Saturday night’s mayhem. We went before the riots took place so this is just a normal weekend in the UK.

The shopping heaven that is Market Street!

Mother and Son oohing and aahing.

Overlooking some pub area.

That shop on the lower left right hand corner is Jigsaw which was the company that Kate Middleton used to work at!

The wheel of Manchester!

This looks like a mini Picadilly Circus right here!

Balloons bobbing along a river near Manchester’s gay district.

It’s like a party road!

With pretty pink doors. <3

Gay Sparkle!! The sparkle fonts are made from super glittery cardboards which totally had me staring at it for a good 10 minutes or so, with my mouth wide open in wonder.

Don’t know what it means..

More of the streets along Manchester.

There are random space invaders all over the city. Mervyn mentioned to me that it is done by a group of artists where they try to incorporate space invaders at the strangest of places. Here a link to see where else that one can find them space invaders.

Under an overhead bridge.

Some random graffiti..

That’s part of Mervyn’s uni and that’s dad crossing the road. Why did the father cross the road?

Another view of the old campus.

Cute surfaces at Costa Coffee!

Archie’s!! I didn’t get a good picture of the snack bar but it’s basically trying to be like Pop Tate’s Choc’lit Shoppe in Archie Comics and this is their delivery car.

Manchester at dusk.

The tram tracks at night – so beautifully illuminated.

I love walking around manchester at night because it’s just so damn cold! Something I don’t get to do often and always want to do more of whenever I’m in a cold country.

Mervyn brought us to a pub on our first night there.

Having a pint like the locals.

A fruit stall down the road from our hotel.

Old architecture + bluest of skies = <3

this looks like an old theatre! It’s a building near my brother’s apartment.

Mervyn walking home.

Potholes, just like back home!

Love sticking my camera into the grass and going trigger happy.

This is when I switched to my telelens!

Mum and the superbokeh at the back.

Oh puffy dandelions, how I miss thee!

And lavenders! I can’t get enough of it!!

That’s Mervyn’s common kitchen which he share with his other flatmates.

Found this on the window of a laundromat that we wanted to go to. Thank god we came too late.

Ya I know I’m one lousy tourist – this is obviously a historical monument but I don’t even know its name.

Artsy shot of the historical monument.

Dad and his trademark eye roll.

There was a pub next to the historical monument that serves Monday lunch at 505 off! I think all four of us ate like £20 in total. For such a filling meal too!

I don’t know la hah I’m not that good at describing my meals. But I do have moments when I want to grow up to be a food blogger.

Mashy tomato on something green and something yellow. Cheese maybe? Who knows. It tasted goood!

Thin crusts pizza are ALWAYS THE BOMB.

Everywhere you go in England you’ll definitely have chips.

A rustic pub somewhere in town.

Balls around town.

My fit brother!

Dad’s my dad.

Mervyn introduced an Indian restaurant to us called Zouk, which is off Oxford Road.

Cute decors!

basically it’s a little middle eastern mixed with indian cuisine. So here is something grilled.

And you have the sour salad!

Grainy rice!

Curry something

Curry something else?

Another curry dish!

Piccadilly Gardens!

I love it how the streets are always bursting with colours and personalities doing all sorts of things!

For one of the dinners, Mervyn had a pint of pie. Sounds nauseating right? So much pie!

Dad and I had pork ribs!

Man eating pork.

MUm had…I think a fish dish.

The fish dish.

Aku tengah konpius nih!

Oh so good…….

Saw a sticker on the side of a bus stop.

More of the sights we took in during one of our long evening walks in the cold.

Trainers are on because I’m still wary of the cold weather.

A river that my brother walks along almost every other day.

So romantic right?

A bridge across the river.

Their judgemental stares..:P It was meant to hurry us along.

My brother holds his gaze.

Look what I found!

This is Mervyn on his graduation day.

Been quite  awhile since I last camwhored. Still got it I see.

My brother, the law graduate, who still has to slave for 1 year and 9 months before he is a full fledged lawyer!

Mervyn and some of his coursemates.

Awww… mum doing something she always does.

Thought I’d help out by capturing Mervyn’s final moments with his friends.

The hall where the commencement ceremony took place.

Paparazzis with so much love in their hearts.

Hahahahha! I love this shot of my brother. He looks utterly ecstatic.

One of our few family photos. Thanks William!

And of all people that I bumped into in the UK.. Li-Lynn!! My kindergarten classmate!!

Love love love this shot of the mortarboards in the air.

I do think my skills are improving..hehe.

One of our nicest family photos.

Mervyn and more of his buddies.

Mum insisted on getting him a graduation bear.

Love this shot of dad and mum!

To all my fellow dentists, you know what i mean. “Ambil coupland.”

Mervyn says goodbye to his beloved uni.

And I happily camwhore away.

I feel this photo would make a good poster for the play “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying”.

For his graduation celebratory dinner, we had it at a fancy restaurant called San Carlo!

Apparently plenty of celebrities have been there before.

So fancy.

But super cramped too.

Me amidst the clutter of glasses and plates.

Another beautiful walk back to our hotel in the cold summer night.

This bar is called Taps I think! Very amusing because the alcohol is literally served from the tap!

No idea what St. George’s House is but I know it looks quite nice.

Another pub behind our hotel.

The next morning, we were lucky enough to spot the Red Bull entourage!

Over at Picadilly Gardens, a flock of pigeons wait for the next jet of water from the fountain for their bath time.

Always in awe of these street performers!

Saw this on a wall in a music store.

So big!!

This is one old building. I was taking this photo from a Subway sandwich shop. How times have changed eh?

On our last day, we went to Lake District! It is apparently the largest lake in the UK and it rains all the time there.

Why did the swan cross the road?

The swan is so cute!

*gulp*

No  I didn’t eat the swan.. I had something else. Fish and chips!

Dad and Mevyn enjoying their meals too.

Awww..he wants some! He really likes chips.

A seagull floats aimlessly.

Saw his friend kot.

We rented a boat which we could drive out on our own to the middle of nowhere.

Mervyn and I making the “Mmmm sweet lemonade” face. Can anyone guess where that face is from?

Mum at the wheels.

Spotted a fellow sailor in the distance. We waved.

Found a wall with a heart spray painted on! <3

My FB profile pic which has received so damn many likes!

Mervyn has a go with the heart on the wall.

Heart balloon!

I like this one.

I think this looks like something right out of a movie.

Some pretty pipes along the sides of a house.

So old fashioned! Would be even cooler if they had milk bottles!

Not quite the believer.

Pretty chalk written menu!

Chocolates!

So cute right?!

I had to climb this little hill to get to the blue flowers.

The blue flowers!!

It’s like they reach right up to the heavens!

Me and the blue blue flowers.

My favourite shade of blue.

More of the boats bobbing along Lake District.

A judgmental crow.

And I end this long overdue post with a pretty duck.

Apparently all future induction courses will be held here. It’s a really beautiful health allied sciences college and the hostels are really new and comfortable too. All officers in the peninsular will have their induction here which is carried out in batches. ALSO, good news to all government servants who will have to have their induction courses one day, the birotatanegara (BTN) has been cancelled forever since Jan 2011!! YAY!!!

The view from the sixth floor.

More hostels nearby.

The top of some of the faculty buildings.

Neighbouring hostels.

The carpark just outside our hostel block!

In a way, it is sort of like a camp as everyone is about the same age. There are only six of us from AIMST but we are trying our best to make as many new friends as possible.

Had dinner with Ee Chia, Steven and Cze-Yin on Monday night!

Pretty awesome to be able to pop out if you think the food’s gonna suck.

For me it feels really surreal to be called by the government to congregate at a place for four days because it just feels like national service all over again. I mean technically we are serving the nation but I couldn’t help feeling this overwhelming sense of nostalgia, walking back to dorms, i really felt like I was back in national service.

My schedule and my name tag.

I am always up for making new acquaintances and this is how it usually is when you go for a camp, you do not expect to see any familiar faces. The strange but awesome part is that I get to choose my room mate. It doesn’t even happen this way at a normal camp! So of course I would choose someone whom I have known for years, someone whom I have lived with for years and someone whom I have plenty of catching up to do with. So glad Cze-Yin is my room mate!

And this is a new friend I have made, Dhanya!

Lie Yuen, she’s pretty much your replacement.

Because AIMST people band together.

But we did make some new friends.

Just a fraction of the 110 participants at the camp.

I was initially worried that I might have to share a dorm with six other girls or something. While it was fun, I don’t think I want to repeat what I went through during national service – sharing a dorm with 24 girls. But to my delight, our room is HUGE! Two to a room and so much floor space! There’s a conjoining toilet with our neighbour but it’s cool.. we made friends, we won’t steal each other’s shampoo. Albeit a little dusty, the bed is really solid and the ceiling fan is cold enough for us as we’re on the 6th floor plus it has been raining quite a bit. The lovely weather does remind me of national service where it was mostly cloudy as I went during the rainy season.

A lovely wardrobe for my so called ironed clothes.

Our two beds and the awesome floor space.

Cze-Yin chillaxing with my laptop.

On our way out to the first lecture this morning.

Another strange thing was that there’s no curfew for us. Most of us are probably still coming to terms with the fact that we are no longer students but real, proper, working adults. The security guards would wave us through and we’d be stunned while still in “Defence Against Security Guards” mode – a skill many of us have acquired as students who had to deal with fussy guards.

I remember in National Service, we would still have talks after dinner and we would walk to the cafeteria after a cool evening bath and settle in for an evening of superstitious or motivational rambling by some trainer.

I’m feeling particularly nostalgic about how I would whip out my notepad and pen to record every single moment that happened in national service while trying to deal with home sickness, making new friends and eating strange food.

In National Service, we were served five meals a day and it is no different here. Two hours of talk is followed by half an hour or one and a half hour of makan, another two hours of talk, another round of makan. We makan SIX times here.

In national service, if we skipped any makans, we were required to be in the cafeteria. But here we can adjourn back to our rooms and come out again when there was another lecture to go to. The room is in a perpetual state of coolness.

In national service, I arrived in a bus, without a single soul who could speak to me in English. I thought it was the most important trait to have back then. Fast forward 6 years and here I am, less of a banana and arrived in my car. Drove here straight after work and the feeling was …for lack of a better word…awesome. I just felt this vast amount of freedom to just up and leave anytime. Back in the day, camps meant a month of planning, liasing with friends, getting your mum to do some shopping for you. But now, I can just pack a few necessities, shop for some stuff and throw everything into my car boot and sing loudly to Fly FM for one hour plus before arriving at the campus where my induction is held.

When I went for camps, surely I would forget to pack something or I would realize that I really really could use with something. And I would never get it. I would then have to suffer in silence. But last night, we needed floor mats because the room was dusty and it flooded on my side of the room as we forgot to close the window. Out we went to a grocery store about 2km away, without feeling even the slightest bit of tiredness to stock up on some floor mats, toilet rolls and snacks. All because I had a car. I am in CAMP and I have my car here with me. I can say that over and over again.

I think the best part is that I have my favourite soft toy pillow here with me, my P1wimax modem here with me and my kettle as well. As I am quite high up, the speed is mad crazy. When I download movies, it’s like way faster than the speeds I get back home in Kluang.  I have never even been this well equipped at a camp.

While my colleagues have been very supportive of me for the past 5 months, I have never had the chance to meet so many FYDOS at once. I don’t feel like I’m in a working environment, it seems like university all over again because no one here is your senior (or in some cases, no one here is very much your senior).

I have three more days to go. And then it’s Singapore for the weekend. Singapore’s like, 20 minutes away. How awesome does my camp get?!? Internet + Boyfriend Who Is 20 Minutes Away + Car + Cold Weather + Comfy Bed….I’m one happy cookie.

I remember the 2006 flood in Johor was very bad and it made headlines for a couple of months as the situation would not let up. Since I’m only in Kluang for a few months, I might as well take the opportunity to go around town to see it for myself.

It rained the whole of Monday too and when it rains, patients won’t come for their dental treatments so I spent the better part of the day staring out the window at heavy downpours and at times, light showers. It never ever stopped, not even for a minute. But it was cold..like seriously cold. Everyone in Kluang was clad in a jacket like we were in Cameron Highlands or something. I had my scarf on.

Straight after work, I went about town checking the damage. By evening (around 6pm), most of the areas which were previously flooded have already cleared up, but the drains were still clogged up.

This is the Sungai Mengkibol river, the river that  I cross everyday to work. It’s usually tiny. This morning, it was easily about 6 feet lower already. I heard it overflowed on Sunday too.

The water level was usually high. Excuse my noobness, but the water level would also be affected by high tide/low tide, like the sea right?

Over on the other side, Sungai Mengkibol can be seen overflowing to a plot of land next to it. Even though I pass it everyday, I can’t for the life of me remember what it was…was it already a fishing plantation (omg think of the poor fishermen and his fish farm!! All swam away!) or a plantation with some huts in the middle. Either way, it still looks like flood.

Luckily they are just huts, which I am sure wouldn’t be too difficult to clean up. And it doesn’t look like anyone stays there permanently. But I could be wrong.

Just a shot of the wetness of it all. And how dreary it is.

Somewhere near the Yap Tau Sah area, Sungai Mengkibol comes up to the grassy banks. On normal days, the river is smaller than your average monsoon drain.

Maybe I can start a boating business.. RM2 to cross over in my sampan!

A nearby football field is totally submerged in water. Can imagine how muddy it will be the next day..ugh.

Walkways totally covered in ankle deep water.

This was taken in Kampung Melayu. Just the night before, water levels were about 2 feet deep.  The drains can overflow anytime.

More of the overflowing drain!

A little boy plays with the drain water. His mum nags at him a few seconds after the shot.

Most of the roads around my area now look like this. With mud stones strewn all about and big persistent puddles of water.

I’m not a very adventurous person plus being alone in Kluang, I hardly explore but choose to stay at home and cook and go online and just look forward to the weekend. After asking a few locals if there were anymore flooded spots, I was told that Sungai Sembrong was hit pretty bad. Thanks to Google Maps, I found myself about 10km away from town at an industrial area on a bridge with many other curious onlookers.

Luckily there was ample parking space at the bridge so everyone stopped their cars and played tourists. I was told by my friend Jonathan (whom I met up with for dinner after that. We were supposed to take the pictures together but he couldn’t get off work) that the river has actually risen up by about 20ft. That’s crazy!!

That is one ferocious flood.

Sucks to be the villagers there.

Nasty currents.

I hope they managed to turn off the power supply before anyone or any animals get electrocuted.

Everyone was holding a digital camera.

Cars parked along the bridge. I parked at a spot that was less dangerous, don’t worry.

A closer look at the TNB building.

You could like swim from the TNB building to the river, no problem.

The oil palm plantation is not spared either.

In UK they have their winter wonderland, we have our water mushyland!

Imagine what kind of animals are lurking in those waters…one of my friends (hey jen!) on fb said crocodiles! lol!

Got some boys to smile for me!

You can’t even differentiate between land and river anymore.
No bananas this time around for its owner!

I could literally walk from where I was to that fast flowing water.. scary! No wonder cars get carried away!

Further in would probably be more villages.. good luck to them.

So yeah, this is the situation in Kluang… and these are pictures of the subsided floods. Imagine what it was like when it was really flooded!

Managed to finish this post just as the clock strikes two! Okay, back to work and have a safe trip back to your hometowns people! Gotta head into Singapore later to pick Chee Kiang and hope the flood has cleared up along the NSE when we head back to Subang tomorrow.

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It’s so long ago that my graduation ceremony photo albums pops up on Facebook’s Photo Memories every now and then. But it is my graduation day, and no matter how long it has been, it will be up here. My europe trip too. Even though it happened in mid-2009, one day I shall post all if not some of my pictures taken in Amsterdam, Paris etc.

Some shots from the morning, Chee Kiang in his outfit that garnered many compliments from my friends.

Old news but…CHEE KIANG GOT ME AN IPAD FOR MY GRADUATION!!!

With graduation bouquets that I ordered for myself on behalf of my loved ones T_T

Got Chee Kiang to go trigger happy with my DSLR while I was down at the basement getting ready with my classmates.

Came up to show them my attire! (and to make my parents sniffle..wahahah)

This was when I still did not know how to wear the robes properly. ;|

Getting my attire lovingly adjusted by mum and Chee Kiang.

At the basement with Brenda. This was our day!!

Dinner mates!! <3

With Poh Yee! Side note: We held each others’ hands when opening our letters regarding the places we were posted to.

l-r: Wuan Phing, Jaya, Fiza and Yan Rui! Wuan Phing is in Pahang now, Jaya is in Kota Tinggi, which is Johor as well, Fiza Selangor and Yan Rui is somewhere in Perak.

I’m definitely going to miss moments like this. :’)

Myself and Bala, one of the most capable and independent guys in my class.

Obligatory 5.3 group photo. I miss my group mates so much despite being the only girl there. Yes I am the only girl. *runs away from Cze-Yin’s evil glare*

With a very unfriendly Jimmy.

We were lining up, like in primary school, waiting to go up on stage!

Yup that’s how I looked like in my gown. Uh-huh.

Narjit won the Best Dental Student award! Since Year 1 we have already known that the award would go to her. Just wish that the school would have come up with a better name than that.

Terrible right this Jimmy. Take photo with Narjit so happy pulak.

Doing a favour for Group 5.4. Here’s your group photo if you haven’t already saved it from my facebook album from centuries ago.

Group 5.1!

Group 5.3.

Another one with group 5.3!

And lastly, group 5.5

With my darling Lie Yuen. I sometimes I forget that I am living alone and when there’s something I want to tell someone, anyone, I instantly look for Lie Yuen, then I remember, oh yeah. We are not living together anymore.

With Jamie who got posted back to her hometown in Sarawak!

If you can see, my family members are waving in the background of this picture. Heh. They somehow managed to find seats along my row in the graduates’ area.

More photos while we waited patiently for all the inspiring speeches to end.

After getting our certs! And yup, no nice photos of me on stage by my dad/Chee Kiang. There’s one professionally taken by the gown rental/photography people which I have collected but have yet to scan it… it’ll just get hung up somewhere at home. There’s gonna be a little shrine on one of the walls dedicated to my graduation.

Not a scroll!

With Dr. Manikandan and Dr. Karthik. Dr. Karthik is like a super teacher. He was there with us from (almost) the beginning till the end of our studies. He thought us the super basic stuff like dental materials and cavity designs all the way to complex things like post and core, crowns and bridge, cast partial dentures.. we can’t thank him enough. He is extremely dedicated to the students and helped us in any way he could. We were initially afraid of him because he put on the bad cop persona but over the years, he became a dear friend and mentor to all of us.

Dr. Manikandan is one of the dental officers who sees patients before deciding if they are suitable for the students. He also played a major role during our Clinical Management Report and credits to him for the beautiful before and after photos taken with the clinic’s camera. He also earns many brownie points among the students here by being one of the hottest staff members around! That being said, Dr. George is still a favourite among most female students. HEHEHE. Sorry everybody, the secret is out.

Sneaking a solo photo in amidst the chaos.

Found Dr. Brindha and Dr. Niekla!!

These are the two most motherly lecturers I have here.

Dr. Brindha is Dr. Karthik’s wife and the both of them arrive at AIMST at the end of 2006, early in our second year. She was the good cop to Dr. Karthik’s initial bad cop. Dr. Brindha is usually the one to reassure us when we are faced with “OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT” situations. She takes her time to clear our doubts for us and is super super super patient.

Dr. Niekla.. probably the most popular lecturer at the dental faculty. She has recently left AIMST so it’s quite unfortunate that the juniors will not get to know her . You people at IMU better appreciate her! She’s probably the most animated, adorable, caring and understanding lecturer ever! She has no qualms about letting her hair down when joking with students and swings back into professional mode when it comes to our paediatric sessions. Yes, she’s our paediatric dentistry lecturer. With her good PR skills, she’s excellent with the kids and she’s the one who taught us about the importance of a reassuring touch to improve our communication with the kids.

A bear, Jimmy and Magesh.

Praveena and me!!

With juniors Serene and Rachel.

With my patient, Mr. Phoon! Mr. Phoon is probably one of my most caring patients ever… I only met him during the final leg of my final year, a time when stress levels were sky high, tears were held back by fanning ourselves frantically. When my clinical management report (CMR) patient told me that she probably could not come for anymore treatment, I really didn’t know what to do. Mr. Phoon, whom I had a session with that day, saw my crumbling face and offered to become my CMR patient. He said he could come anytime I needed him to. I was so so so touched by his sincerity but I had to persevere to convince my first patient as I had already started with her case and there was not much time left. Thank you so much, Mr. Phoon. My junior who took on your case is very lucky to have you as a patient.

Finding a good patient back in uni was seriously rare. I can only name like… a handful of patients who were nice to me. Most were nightmares. I had one infamous nightmare. Hahaha. No names please!

With Lie Yuen and Brenda and our graduation presents!

A bouquet of Ferrero Roucher!! Who so lucky?!

Mum and I before I scrambled away to go on stage for a group photo. Sorry mum!

With Maxis’ famous Doraemon soft toy. The soft toy even made it into the papers! More on that further down.

Me, detecting a camera.

Can hardly make out our faces but yeah, that’s all 37 of us. The first batch of dental graduates from AIMST University! Our class photo is hung in the dental students’ common room to be remembered for ages to come.

With Prof. Smales, a man who loves us as much as we love him. He still has his british humour about him which is not quite registered among my classmates most of the time but we do love him so much. He is the one who build up the entire aimst dental programme with the help of Datuk Dr. Rohani, Dr. Robinson and Prof. Comfort. But this AIMST BDS programme is his baby.

In the initial years, he would come in every other month to tell us about the developments of the programme. He would tell us about the construction of the simulation lab, the technology lab, what we were to expect in our new dental building at the new campus (which we only saw for the first time in our third year) and later on, the successful accreditation of our course. It was a long journey and he was with us all the way. I believe that this is a privilege that the first batch of dental students have managed to enjoy. People in the fourth batch and so on would probably never get to know Prof. Smales the way we did. I’m sorry that you guys did not get to see the school transform to become what it is today but please appreciate all the facilities that you have here at AIMST because it wasn’t always like that.

Cze-Yin, her aunt and her cousins.

When we came out from the great hall, THIS was awaiting us. We were stunned into silence. It didn’t quite register at first.. but we eventually calmed down and were overwhelmed with such gratefulness towards our dental juniors. you guys are the best. Always always always so creative.

With Batch 4′s famous dental probe (made from a roller brush) and mouth mirror (mirror made from a milo tin cover..lol).

Extremely supportive juniors. We felt like real celebritites…:) We felt so loved.

This is my politician smile. lol

They called themselves the mobile backdrop. ;D

Lie Yuen’s red carpet smile.

Poh Yee gets mobbed too. LOL

Some quiet time with my dear Brenda and Lie Yuen.

Was getting a little bit tired from all the activity.

With Yen Yen Cheh Cheh who came all the way from Singapore to see me get my certificate. Thank you YYCC!!

With Chee Kiang and all my presents. <3 Oh, the iPad was in the car.

Paiseh to take the flowers.

Ok, a more loving photo.

Family photo!! yup, this is my entire entourage.

The girls!

One of my few solo pictures.

MUST TAKE. Housemates photo. MUST.

As planned on Facebook, we gathered at the grassy patch next to do the administration building for our mortar board throwing picture.

Unbeknownst to us, there was a chinese newspaper journalist among the crowd of proud parents looking on. So yeah, there’s a photo of my classmates and I in one of the chinese newspapers a few days after that.

A few more jumps. Someone kicked Doraemon to the floor by accident. Haha.

Ready for the next round!

Whee!!

Don’t know who’s mortar board is whose.

To this day, I still don’t know how they managed to get the mortar boards to form a circle in mid-air.

We looked more like lawyers!

Group photo with as many as we could find.

With Batch 2 juniors, Melvin, Samuel, CY, Sook Mei and June.

With Ada (second from right) and her pharmacy coursemates.

<3 Sabrina and Aimee!! Batch 4 juniors.

Some quality time with the family. Koo Cheong and Koo Ma!!

With dad and mum.

Chee Kiang and the bear, taken against his will.

Like in a movie, but it would be better if my hair was not so haywire and maybe more make-up for me please.

One more round for Brenda who missed the mortar board throwing photo session.

Whee!!

With Aik Munn, one of my favourite Batch 3 juniors.

I think this was when my dad teased Chin Kai about being the new owner of most of my furnitures.. haha. Take good care of my grandfather’s old cathode tv, Chin Kai!

With Yii Ping and Jen! Jen is the proud owner of one of my book shelves and my weighing scale. LOL

With Philip and Deniece!

Kaixuan!

Stephanie and Charis!

Felicia and Ei Leng!!

Us seniors feeling so loved with all the juniors coming to see us on this special day.

With Janice, Samantha, Sook Mei and Shing Yin

With Janice, Kimra, Agnes, Soo Huan and Wai Yan!

Awww my favourite sibling of a friend, Lie Peh! <3 <3 <3 <3 No prizes for guessing who’s sister. Hahha.

With Siva!

And GERVIENE!! Our current ADSA president, resident funny woman of AIMST Dentistry. Thanks for always making the cutest jokes, Gerv!!

With Ananth and Dhanya.

With Jimmy from Pharmacy Batch 2! Poor guy got posted to Terengganu.

More solo hiaupor photos. Much thanks to Chee Kiang for layaning. <3

With Lily!

With Prof. Ferguson!! My oral biochemistry lecturer. He said if he didn’t make use of his camera (to take pictures with his students), his wife would question him. LOL.

He looks so cute here!

With Jickson, Cynthia and Sheena.

And Victor!

When you leave a boyfriend waiting in the car with your camera, this happens.

Oooh..ooh.. so right, after like 3-4 months of my convo ceremony, the family and I decided to go get proper shots done at a studio. Here’s the results:

*punches fist in air* YESSSSs… done with my convocation ceremony post.

*goes about pretending that I didn’t just leave this blog unblogged for the past month*

For starters, I don’t have any friends or family members here. It was quite tough to come home to an empty house praying that the electricity won’t get cut off because if it does, I have no one to scream out for.

But like all the shit that have ever happened to me, I usually embrace strange new circumstances quickly and fall into a comfort zone.

So here’s my comfort zone:

I wake up at about 6.30am (I know) and roll in bed till like…7am? Then I stumble into the bathroom and slap on some eye-make up (only eye concealer, without any foundation so that my skin doesn’t age because of cosmetics..haha like very pro like that). Depending on what’s available in the fridge, I pop whatever it is in my mouth and make my way to work in under 5 minutes! How awesome is that right? Even back in uni I had to like travel 15 minutes to campus and I thought that was near! Actually the whole of Kluang is like 5-10 minutes from any one point to another.

The day flies by with about 20-25 patients (some of my classmates have reportedly managed 70 patients a day. How is that possible?).. I’m doing things that I learned in my second year of dentistry, nothing like the intense stuff I had to endure in my final year. Some of my classmates are attached to specialist clinics but I’m to be doing six months worth of outpatient work (or as we call it, OP) which is pretty much routine dental treatments, nothing much to scream about. Relatively stress free but my mind still draws a blank at times and I seem to be developing the bad back that all dentists dread.

Especially when I have to extract an upper molar, it takes quite a lot of effort on my part to get it out and I’ll be in a weird curved position which is hell for my back, with sweat pouring behind my visors and the muscles in my right hand cramping up. If I couldn’t go on any longer, I’ll go round to the next bay and get some help from my seniors who all willingly come to help me and heroically sort of just roll out the tooth that I have been struggling with. I’m always dumbfounded with how easy they make it seem.

I’m the only First Year Dental Officer at my clinic and there are four other senior officers here with me who are in their second, third and fourth year already.

By 4.30pm, everyone will be seated at the waiting area waiting for the  punch clock to belt out a rendition of Fur Elise.

I get home slightly after 5pm and start making dinner, as you can see in my facebook mobile uploads  if we’re FB buddies.

A couple of chinese shows, answer some sticker orders and I’m usually too knackered to even edit photos, blog or upload new stocks to The Sticker Monster.

But thank god for public holiday like the one today! And yes, that’s why I’m here typing away.

So here are some photos from my Galaxy S of my life in Kluang, which have all been uploaded on my FB mobile uploads album..so nothing new if you’re on my Facebook friend!

This was taken on my first day in Kluang. I got myself a fully furnished place (even comes with an airconditioning unit in the living room!!) which is about 5 minutes away from work.

The clinic that I am posted to! They call it a Klinik Kesihatan, sort of a small integrated medical facility. The pharmacy and the medical side is on the ground floor while the dental clinic is on the first floor!

The inside of one of the surgery rooms. One of the benefits of being posted to Johor is that I get to use the OHCIS which is a digital way of keeping patients’ records. Apparently Johor was chosen to run the beta version and only a town in Selangor is using it.

Dad got me a budgie to keep me company in Kluang. I love how blue its feathers are and on the back of its head the feather looks like newspaper print in blue. Since it’s a blue bird, we were thinking “Lam Cheok” (blue bird in cantonese) and it ended up becoming Lanciao. To reserve some form of dignity and cuteness for the bird, its name is Elsee. Elsee is a blue bird. Elsee is a very noisy blue bird. Elsee is a very noisy blue bird that eats seeds infused with honey and egg (for protein). Elsee eats confusing seeds. Seeds come from trees. Why is there egg in Elsee’s seeds?

A while ago, my little nephew came round to visit! Mum’s holding him from launching at Angel.

Angel doesn’t give a damn. Most importantly is that her bowl gets refilled.

Another peek at Kluang life! As with all other parts of Malaysia, it rains heavily in the evenings so I’m still under the impression that Kluang is a cooling place! Hope this assumption stays true for the rest of the year! Pictured here is a portion of Kluang Town on a rainy afternoon.

This is as close as I get to a hypermarket. There are three Giant supermarkets here (only one of it is sort of a hypermarket)…well, I make do.

Candies at Kluang Mall…….i helped myself to some. Heh.

The Sticker Monster HQ has been established at my new place, although I’ll only be here for six months. But it’s more comfortable now as I don’t have to shift my stocks up and down the North South Highway like how I did back in uni when I had sem breaks. Good news is that my stuff can stay at one place, bad news is that I no longer have semester breaks.

On my second weekend I went back home for a day trip up to Ipoh to meet with some of the ex classmates who got posted to Perak and Penang. Boo to those who couldn’t come down.

Poh Yee shows us how Ipoh people park – TRIPLE PARK!

Another lonely evening, heading back into Kluang.

A little something to keep me busy! Many new stocks to be uploaded on The Sticker Monster! Thank god it was a public holiday and I have finally managed to photograph all the stocks.

Not that different from the last five years…………

As dad was back from Indonesia on my third weekend home, we decided that it was high time to take our proper studio shots before the novelty of graduating wears off.

Dad struts his stuff for the camera.

Obligatory yumcha session at Melur. It was an important meeting because we had to discuss about the goodie bags that we were preparing for International Dahlings’ Weekend 2010! Read about the first International Dahlings’ Weekend here!

Back in Kluang again… this is how Malaccans and Johoreans roll. My house too has an antenna that is damn tall to get Singapore channels.

My fully equipped kitchen! No oven though….after a few paychecks, maybe I’ll get one and….uh, learn to bake? Fingers crossed!

Hope I have not been boring my Facebook friends with photos of my dinner. I’ve become one of those eat shit sleep Facebookers! But it’s always an adventure as I am learning the ropes of reallllly living on my own. In Kedah I had my kedah mum and dad, Lie Yuen and Cze-Yin, and my other sisters, Zhu Zen, NIen, Brenda, Poh Yee..etc etc.

I wanted to cook regularly too in Kedah but I didn’t want to be left out from the dinner time gossip… but now that I am alone, I can actually cook everyday! The tough part is planning ahead. ;|

My godma has a very good system where she cooks enough for the whole weeks, with a variety to boot, and separates each dish into smaller portions and pops them in the freezer. She then takes out a couple of containers each day to reheat. So clever right?

I loooove soup. That’s some herbal soup packet I got from Giant. The brown dish is some brinjal in dark soya sauce, stir fried with eggs and onions. The veggie dish is made up of four angled beans, fishballs and taugeh.

My usual broccoli+chicken+oyster mushroom in oyster sauce combo to accompany my leftovers from the night before.

A truly FML moment, dripping dark soya sauce without knowing it. This was when I had to clean out the fridge because an egg was placed at a wrong angle and slammed into the chiller’s door.

On my fourth weekend, Chee Kiang came up to Kluang to visit me. Just to test how near is Kluang to JB, I decided to try driving down. It takes me an hour and a bit… can be quite tiring after a long day’s work! I had a nice time exploring City Square while waiting for Chee Kiang to cross over from Singapore.

Bringing him around Kluang where we seriously pigged out. So damn sinful lah if you’re on a makan trip. This was taken at the famous Kluang Railway Station Coffee place.

We had surprise visitors from home that night! Charis and Aloysious were here in Kluang to attend Charis’ cousin’s wedding.. thank god for Facebook or else Charis would not know that there is a lonely girl in Kluang who could do with some company from home.

And Samsung Galaxy S has only one lousy point – no flash.

I managed to meet their little girl, Cheryl too!! I love babies!!!

Before Chee Kiang left the next day, we HAD to try the Kluang Railway coffee or else his first trip to Kluang goes unjustified. Ignore the men digging his teeth with his straw.

The prices are awesome!! You can just eat and eat and eat..

A half boiled egg is a half boiled egg.

But this Roti Bakar Bulat is SOOOooo good. They have the Roti Bakar Keping which is the usual sliced bread with butter and kaya slapped in between. This one is like a hamburger bun that has been sliced into sections with the butter and kaya oozing out from the sides. I WANT TO GO BACK FOR MORE~

The rustic interior. Lie Yuen and I will have a photography expedition in Kluang when she comes to visit!

All fenced up! Chee Kiang says it’s to prevent birds from flying in.

Talking to Lie Yuen on the phone. No lah, we are not like Siamese twins, just that she called to ask about some upcoming dental conference that we are keen on going for.

Can imagine his 1940s Shanghai whatever-you-call-a-man’s cheongsam flapping behind him with a bowler hat on as he waits for his beloved (me!) to arrive on the next train.

After stuffing our tummies with ‘breakfast’, we immediately went for ‘lunch’. Tangkak beef noodles!!

I love mine with beef stomach and tendon…Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. My senior at work brought me there for lunch one day and ever since then, I’m hooked!

Chee Kiang’s train has arrived.

Counted on him to survive the train ride before I decide if I should take the train for my future visits to Singapore. According to him, it was damn fast! It arrived in Woodlands within two and a half hours!

All aboard~!

After dropping Chee Kiang off, I drove around my housing area. That’s Gunung Lambak in the distance. Like Gunung Jerai (the mountain that I saw everyday in Kedah), it gets enveloped in mist in the mornings. I get to see the whole mountain too from my surgery room’s window!

Later in the day, Cze-Yin came down from Melaka (she underestimated to distance and was super tired) to have dinner with me. My second visitor!!

So that about sums up life in Kluang for now.

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We arrived in the adventure capital when all was dark and we didn’t even know that right in front of the bach that we were staying at was the magnificent Lake Wakatipu. The whole of Queenstown is situated around this beautiful lake!

The impending mess of two families.

One brother with a blocked nose.

There was a fireplace! But due to everyone’s inexperience with lighting a fire/Uncle Dan’s claims that the logs were wet, we didn’t use it. Nifty thing though.

Artistic Adrienne and her Wacom tablet.. I should have taken some photos of her drawings. She gets her inspiration from Sonic the Hedgehog and imho, she draws better cartoons than the cartoon itself!

Another thing that is awesome about this bach (a holiday home rented out to tourists but owned by someone else who lives far away) is that it has an extremely well equipped kitchen! A huge fridge, spices in a spice rack, a dishwasher, two ovens, a microwave, utensils, plates, mugs, kettle…you name it!

There’s a double story room at the back of the bach with a tiny attached kitchen too! It has a fridge AND a microwave! Ahhh!! This place is even more equipped than my own house.

The bach has three rooms. Popo, Mervyn and myself took the biggest one. Adrienne was supposed to join us but she preferred to be with her parents.

Mervyn’s corner in that humongous room.

The Tung family’s bedroom.

A view of the upstairs’ rooms.

The upstairs toilet.

The staircase. Sorry lah must showcase the whole house. Hopefully you’ll be enticed to rent it! Very cheap only! NZ1000 for four nights! Divide that by eight people! Actually there’s no limit to how many you can cramp into that bach.

Mervyn in the morning.

The staircase in the morning. I know it’s super mo liu but I think the place looks different in the day hence the photos. Shut up and keep scrolling.

The Jolene’s touch. Not unlike Midas’ touch.

The view from Mervyn’s window. Too awesome right?!

My brother is clearly not a morning person.

The fully functioning kitchen in the morning.

Adrienne brought her Wii along to entertain all of us. Actually most of the time she’ll be engrossed with her Sonic The Hedgehog game.. after we make her feel guilty about ignoring us, she’ll let us play some Wii sports on it and make ugly avatars for us. Complete with moles and all!

The family that owns this bach has their shelves stocked full with books, magazines and boardgames. There’s even a telescope at the back! The cupboards in my room even had prams and toys for babies!

I realized I didn’t get a night shot of mum and dad’s loft. From the ground floor, you go up a level and it’s the bathroom with some landing space where they put their suitcases.

Aforementioned staircase.

After the first level, a narrow staircase leads you to the bedroom proper. Tiny little thing but someone’s gotta give. Thanks mum and dad for taking the room with the highest possibility of being scary!

The view from mum and dad’s bed.

The bach even comes equipped with a balcony but it was too cold out to be doing any barbecuing.

When we woke up it was still very cloudy but after awhile, the clouds parted and we were treated to a sneak peak of the amazing view! The mountains that you see in the picture are called The Remarkables, one of the three ski resorts in Queenstown. More Lord of The Rings footage was shot there!

A shot of our bach as dad and Uncle Dan were backing out from the drive way.

The troop all bundled up as we explored Queenstown.

Baren tree again!

Don’t know what Adrienne was doing.

One of the window displays! I bought one of those puffy little sheep!

In the center of Queenstown are all their shops – restaurants, souvenir shops, ski rentals, boutiques, bookshops etc.

Adrienne makes herself comfortable.

Mervyn cannot resist cute things. <3

Neither could we. This was when I discovered that Adrienne loves soft toys! I thought her only interests were video games and drawing cartoons!

The two sheeps my grandma bought for her.

Pfft, no money, so ugly.

Cute little building near the jetty.

Popo, mum and Aunty Jenny chilling out while the rest of us soaked in the sights with our cameras.

Bobbing boats.

Plenty of ducks were just floating about, oblivious to the world, fighting for food with the fishes.

More of Queenstown!

That’s how it is in New Zealand. Clear water all the way!

A duck and a drake talking it out.

Ugly duckling spotted!

All around us were people indulging in adventurous sports – here’s one! Some guy parasailing!

Up he goes..

So peaceful!

Mervyn and Dad are both extremely awesome photographers and I am not being biased just because we are family.

Here’s a link to Mervyn’s flickr and here’s a link to Dad’s Picasa.

Mervyn is more about concept, where else dad loves to capture ‘the moment’ and enjoys HDR-ing his pics.

Like a Nikon ad.

At least he is willing to pose for me.

Naughty Adrienne knows about WTF but does not want to say it out. Even after much encouragement. Heh.

Gorgeous colours on this fluffy little guy here!

This duck came up for a walk.

No photos please!

Looks like the duck and the drake from the earlier photo are done with their talk.

A shock of blue feather peeks out from within one of the ducks.

What else to say but thanks dad for the tele lens! <3

Aunty Jenny says hi!

Mum loves soft toys!

Queenstown looks pretty cramped but in a nice quaint way.

We had Japanese for lunch! The price was okay, comparable to home.

Mum and her udon.

I thought the Japanese restaurant was quite witty with this signage but turns out it’s a government’s effort and it is pretty much at every other restaurant.

Naughty souvenirs! I bought Chee Kiang a boobie egg fryer thingie, so that he can serve the Boyz@AMK (his housemates) boobies for breakfirst!

Edgy signboard.

LOVE IT!

Just for you to cop a feel of the small town.

A belgian chocolate store but I was coughing so mum did not allow me to eat any. I have a feeling even if I was well, she would not get me any either way.

The hot chocolate there is delicious! There were many kinds of hot chocolate flavours!

Can’t get enough of the ducks!

And the yellowed willow!

Some boat putters by.

Another one of the times when dad would yell, “PULL OVER!” and we would get out of the cars in the freezing cold, braving the winds to try our best to capture the beauty of the South Island.

Slippery path!

The budding photog!

Taking photos of each other!

Terpaksa layan myself.

The nearby hills!

See what we found!

Quite freaky.

For further freakiness!

Ugh!

More self layan!

I think this was with dad’s G11. The settings on my camera for the last few photos were kinda off.

Tender moment with Adrienne.

Flat looking rocks!

Throwing stones in vain.

Blur but I love the moment!

Family photo without popo who didn’t want to come out into the cold.

Mum and her ever ready poses.

Dad’s like a christmas tree, only better!

Furry glove makes an appearance again! Sorry!

Must be some NZ trend to deface their cars artistically.

Very meaningful.

-_-

Heading back to our bach. So potong right, no adventure in the adventure capital of New Zealand! Just photos!

Mum, waiting for someone to open the door for her. Also to show you the doorway of the bach!

And that’s all for Day 2! On Day 3 we went to Milford Sound. More pics in the next couple of days!

It was sunrise when we were approaching New Zealand. I gave my mum my digital camera and she took this picture. SO PROUD OF HER!

Mervyn and a kiwi.

The kiwis in NZ are so much sweeter than the ones back home! However, when I got back to Malaysia, kiwis were being promoted left and right for their Vitamin C benefits. Don’t know why.

Dad and mum devouring more kiwis.

Meet Auntie Jenny and Uncle Daniel! They were such fantastic hosts during our one week stay in NZ!

Auntie Jenny provided us with fluffy bedroom slippers to curb the cold NZ floor. I was really glad that I was there during winter!!

Almost all the windows looked like this!

Enjoying the cold weather in their garden.

Somehow dad looks kinda short here.

Not quite frost but the water droplets just look extra white. Wonder why!

My room! Loved the sheets, loved the frosty window.. ahh!

Ugh.. ignore my stupid watermark. This is OkieDokie who made me a flower balloon!

The inside of a NZ mall!

Aforementioned flower and brother.

It’s always interesting to visit a foreign grocery store. there are so many things that are different from what we have back home!

Mum showing off her skills.

And..uh, dad too.

Meet Adrienne! Uncle Dan and Auntie Jenny’s daughter! Her artwork is superb for an 11 year old. I’m trying to get her interested in make-up and pink stuff and she throws it all back at me. Sigh. One day, one day.

Have you tried wholemeal pasta before? Tastes damn nice!

The very next day, we embarked on a 7-8 hour drive to Queenstown, which is hailed as the Adventure Capital of The World!

Some random cemetery.

Photographing my brother in his element.

Love this picture of Adrienne! She’s a very good kid model. All the innocence and happiness so evident!

Beautiful bare branches in the winter time.

I think this was when we were in Darfield..which is where the epicentre of the earthquake was. We missed the earthquake by two weeks, thank goodness!!

A sneak peak into the multitude of snow capped mountains that we would be seeing along our journey. We were giggly with excitement when we saw the first snow capped mountain, the spectacular sight doesn’t get old!

A sheep taking a dump.

A judgmental sheep stares at the sheep who just shat.

Gorgeous picture of Uncle Dan and Adrienne.

Father and daughter moment. <3

Some lambs.

From time to time we would just stop the car at the side of the road and go trigger happy. That’s pretty much how our 8 hours drive became a 10 hours drive.

Horsesss! With fuzzy fur too!

And a patch of hair!

I think I have more photos of Mervyn’s almost butt crack than his face itself.

I like dried grass..so you’ll have to sit through the next few photos patiently.

Mmmm.

Attempt at being artsy fartsy.. lovely rusty barbed wire, eh?

Love the way the dew gorgeously hangs from the grass looking like tiny flowers.

Adrienne was hooked onto photography as well. This little girl has awesome stop motion animation skills!

Dad scolded me after this photo was taken saying that I could easily become some NZ roadkill.

Teaching Adrienne the many ways one can enjoy herself in front of a camera.

Acorns!!

Dad would pull over whenever we came across a breath taking view. And there were many!

Mum and Mervyn.

Myself and mum!

Mervyn braves the cold to get his one million dollar shot.

Obligatory touristy picture.

I still could not get enough of the snow capped mountains.

As with the bare trees.

One thing I loved about our road trip to Queenstown were the small towns that we stopped over! We even stopped at Twizel for dinner on the way back! Twizel is where some of the Lord of the Rings footage was shot at!

Small town knick knacks.

More small town knick knacks.

And all the small towns had proper cafes.

I didn’t realize that there was actually frost on the road until I edited the picture!

Hello!

Majestic hills/mountains that could even block out sunlight!

The tumbling hills.

It was a long journey but we were so entertained by the scenery that it wasn’t boring at all.

Land of the long white cloud!

That’s dad – every 20 minutes of driving.

Some farmers’ homes.

Another stop over!

Beware of horses and horsemen.

So dry and gorgeous!

We made sure to stop over at Lake Tekapo. On a still day, you could get a mirror image of the snow capped mountains on the lake!

Camera shy seagull.

Dad and I being fascinated over this puddle of water.

Reciprocal shot.

One more of the tiny puddle before moving on.

One thing great about New Zealand is that the beautiful sights are so peaceful – no tourists to photobomb your pictures.

And the star of your own photo is yourself! I am referring to my super packed Shanghai trip, which will probably be posted up in my next life. I will put it up, I will I will I will.

Adrienne runs down to join me by the lake.

I couldn’t decide which photo to put!!

And a zoomed out one. LOL.

This is Lake Tekapo, a glacier lake.

Touristy photo!

Adrienne is so brave.

Adrienne unintentionally photobombs dad’s solo photo.

Dragging Mervyn into the shot.

See how clear the water is!

Little photographer.

Mervyn and his reflection.

Mervyn the mountaineer.

The adults weren’t too adventurous and decided to stay away from the rocks.

Popo shies away from the public.

Where else Mum totally revels in it.

Just finding some excuse to pose with my fluffy purple gloves! <3

Aunty Jenny, a chunk of leftover snow from the cold weekend and a super colorful truck at the back!

I got Aunty Jenny to kick the snow for me!

Emo seagull.

Dad catches his prey.

A lone and faraway church.

Mervyn farting?

Managed to convince Mervyn to snap this photo of me. Takes some effort to talk him into carrying my camera. He has a lot of requirements – he needs to get all his artistic shots first before he can layan me, if I am wearing my bling bling glasses, he won’t photograph me out of disgust.

Nice photo of Mervyn!

Dad’s suffering face as we bypassed beautiful sceneries but could not stop as Uncle Dan was going full speed ahead with no intentions of slowing down for another stop over.

Mervyn in the wilderness.

Uncle Dan and Aunty Jenny stopped over to get our dinner for the night! FRESH SALMON!!!

A salmon’s worst nightmare.

The water was kinda murky, quite unlike the glacier water that we have been seeing all along the way.

With popo, who is not a salmon fan.

It was about NZ15.00 for a kg of salmon! Still pretty much a steal as compared to the exorbitant amounts we fork out for our pathetic sashimi slices.

Peaceful surroundings for the salmon to breed.

Ohm.

This Adrienne is like an energizer bunny.

See what I mean?

Something to remember our memorable Salmon Farm trip with.

Bye Bye Salmon Farm!

Since there’s a crazy amount of photos from my NZ trip, as you have probably guessed, I am going to split up my posts. So till the next one!

Basically, she shows you what she can buy from various shopping malls around Singapore on a $100 budget! She can make the most ah lian things look awesome. If you think you are cheapskate, she will make you feel like you are wasting money. She’s also super skinny and tall, so almost everything that she can get fits her like a glove! It’s fun to see her model a certain look because you think it is not possible that ANYBODY can look good in something so damn ah lian. Some stuff are gorgeous too.

I would love to see what she can get from Orchard Road (or the most atas mall there) for $100! That would be a mission!

Inspired by  her videos, here’s my shopping haul for the month of August.

OoOOh wait wait! Esther and I have just started a community on Facebook! It’s sort of a portal but with the benefits of facebook to enable impulse shoppers like you and I to sell our unwanted and unworn clothes, accessories, shoes, bags etc. We named it One Woman’s Junk..actually she came up with One Man’s Junk Is Another Man’s Treasure. We modified it and now we have One Woman’s Junk! I love the name! It’s catchy!

Please click here and get your friends to join too!

okay blog post resumes now.

Like how some ladies who wanna get pregnant tend to be drawn to sour stuff/maternity style clothings/other babies, as a woman who is about to enter the work force, I am particularly drawn to working clothes. I mean this is a little too bare and short for work but with a nice blazer over, it would be okay? But still not appropriate to be worn in a government hospital.

It’s only RM39 and from Summit! Among the ton of crap there, there’s a shop called Cos-Max or something. For a Lala shop, they actually sell their clothes in sizes and not just free size and then slap on a RM25 price tag!

For so little cloth, it’s not super worth it lah. But it’s a cropped jacket that doesn’t make me look super fat. (I said super!)

It’s got tiny gems on the hem and hooks at the top. So I don’t look like I’m suffocating and it’s simple enough to provide a sense of decency to uptight employers.

This is from the same shop too and is my favourite among the two! I love it that the collar is really unique and .. uh, I think this is what people call boat neck right? Also RM39 only. If I don’t find anything, this might end up becoming my convo dress.

Sorry ah one more!

T______T I saw it on the mannequin, I couldn’t resist. After consulting friends on twitter, turns out that this is not appropriate for weddings.. so gonna keep it until the next formal event or shoot myself for being stupid and impulsive. Either one.

I tied the flowy stuff together because otherwise I would look like some birthday cake. Or to rub salt to the wound, like some wedding cake. T_T

This is from Summit as well. It’s about..RM23? Quite okay lah.

Mun Teng dragged me to the FJ Benjamin Warehouse Sale a few weekends ago and I came back with two Raoul tops! This one could be work friendly with a tube top inside, maybe. There were a few racks of Raoul stuff going at RM150 for two pieces!

The ribbon around my neck is attached to the shirt and is like a scarf where you can tie around your neck.

Can’t decide if this shirt is obscene or sweet?

Did you know that Nose was having sales from I don’t know when right up to the 12th of September? Everything was at 20% off and some even had bigger discounts! This pair is one of their latest designs, as in they were placed at the front of the shop. I have been meaning to get slouchy heels in a suede material and I have it now!! The price was RM89.90.. and abit sakit hati want to spend so much as I was feeling quite broke already. But to my delight, it was RM71! Yay!! Still not super cheap, but almost RM20 off something that I want quite badly is awesome!

*shifty eyes* After coming out of Diva and not being able to afford anything, Forever 21 looked cheaper in comparison. In comparison!! It’s not like RM10 for 3 pieces kind of cheap.. and pink feathers are pretty, no?

I needed hoops and when compared to the unbranded ones, I can get about the same amount of hoops for about the same price.

Love it that the silver hoops come in various sizes. Perfect for various levels of aggression.

I went to some wholesale shops in KL with my godma and she happened to know the girl in the shop. She told the girl that I sold accessories online and that I would like to try out some stocks before getting more. Soooo… I picked out this pearl bib necklace for RM15!! WHee!! It’s great to cover cleavages when the occasion calls for it.

I got this for RM8! I saw the exact same one at the Diva rip-off shop, Heart Beats or something?, selling it for Rm59! I was so happy!!

Some gem ones! I think.. RM10.

This was RM8 too! Cute flowers! Of course I’m doing it wrong..I’ll wear my bib necklaces with low cut stuff! I have been yearning to get my hands on some bib necklaces and I’m so glad I found some! At wholesale prices too!

Sort of like a Usagi headband but it has a sturdy band instead of a wire running the entire length of a cloth. So it keeps firm on top of my head! RM10 from Asian Avenue at Sunway Pyramid.

Got this for 5 for Rm10 at Sungai wang. So cute and thin right?

So I bought all the colours that were available!

Love it that the hair sort of flows out from in between the headbands.

Proper Usagi headbands for RM4 each! NYAHAHA. Take that all of you who bought it for a larger amount! Also from Sungai Wang.

In a sweeter colour! I have more (accumulated about 10 pieces now) but at the time when these photos were taken, the Usagi headbands were no where to be found!

Glittery candy wallets. Don’t know when I’ll get around to using them.

Looks quite okay for an RM15 wallet.

*SQUEALS* Clubbing bag!

When I first saw it in Nose at Sunway Carnival in Penang, it was like RM89.90. I was taken by the sequins which you can flip over to reveal a different colour but RM90 for a clubbing bag is a lot of money! I didn’t get it then. But because of the awesome Nose sale, it was at 50% off!! Sometimes, it pays to wait it out a couple of months!!

The flippy sequins!

If you have the patience, you might even be able to create an image!

Another pride and joy from Sungai Wang. There was a whole rainbow of other colours but somehow purple looked the least bit tacky and almost everything in my wardrobe is royal purple. I wasn’t even trying!

I think I should call myself The Broke Barbie.

We also travel back to a time when I was still a student, who had her OSCA (a part of my fifth year final exams) on Monday,  and still I flew to Singapore on Saturday morning. That’s balls man! Might not have done it if it was a theory paper lah but well, I can say anything now, I passed my final year! Whee!
It was quite the adventure actually. Couldn’t sleep on Friday night because of exam tension so slept for two hours before waking up at 4am and thankfully I was quite alert while driving all the way down to Penang airport where I parked my car for the night and hopped on the plane. Spent a night in Singapore and arriving back in my room in Sungai Petani at 2pm on Sunday to plonk myself in front of my notes once more.

THANK GOD THAT’S OVER.

Taking all these graduation photos ie. playing with his mortar board, touching his gown made me worry that I might jinx my own graduation.

Looking smart with an unglam background.

The microwave oven does not make a good cameraman.

This is the photo that was so wrongly interpreted by all my well meaning facebook buddies. I was only giving him his graduation present.

So apparently NUS make special graduation bears and lions for the Class of 2010 and Chee Kiang didn’t want to lose to Jon who already has the lion.

My mum hopes that AIMST will provide some kind of soft toys so she can buy one for me. <3

I’m quite happy that there was a seat for me at his graduation apparently. Seats at my graduation are kinda limited so it’s going to be tough. ((

Meet Chee Kiang’s Aunt and Mum! We were choosing the nicest looking bear for him to hold in his pictures.

Hehe, so we chose the bear. You can’t buy the super big one though, I was told.

Meet Grad The Bear. He’s cool like that.

Like twins! Same collar and gown all..

NUs wants you to know it is an NUS bear, if you didn’t know it already.

With his parents and his aunt.

While Grad the Bear just stones at the side, waiting for his turn to camwhore together.

NUS did a pretty good job putting up some solid backdrops for the graduates to commemorate their special day.. unfortunately it started to rain. Sigh.

You can’t see the rain here but on Chee Kiang’s right shoulder is a guy with a hand over his head – showing you that it is indeed raining.

That’s Leong Hui and his family and Jon’s so nice to be the designated camera man of the day. I had just received my DSLR from my dad at that time and I was still like, “HOW DO WE WORK THISSssss” so I stuck with my PnS and Jon took over. Turns out I have been using manual focus instead of autofocus which is why my photos all suck. But it has gotten better ever since. But I am still rather miffed at the colours of my recent New Zealand pictures, too many dark ones. What am i doing wrong?!

I like this picture a lot  and the many variations of it. Even Grad the Bear gets to be in the pictures!

Much thanks to cameraman slash dear friend Jon.

Housemates <3

And we bumped into Jiun Haw there who also graduated from NUS this year! He was there for one of his friend who graduated from the Faculty of Science or something..

We used to walk home together with Chung Lern and Teng Choon after school.

Grad the Bear made for a good blanket as it was quite cold in the auditorium.

After sitting through the speeches and many other graduates, there’s Chee Kiang finally!! Yay!!

Close up shot courtesy of Jon.

Leong Hui’s close up. I didn’t bring my tele lens.

Choon Han, who is Chee Kiang’s colleague now.

Didn’t know Jon took this picture! I’m like some dinosaur, not willing to explore new photography gadgets.

The screen would constantly show happy graduated faces clapping and cheering for their classmates.

Just a quick glance at the size of the audience that day.

This is…er I can’t remember her name but she was the top student of her class. She speaks very well and is so pretty to boot! Somemore so smart!! Wahhh jealous die me. The list of  book prizes she had just went on and on and on.

The two tired photogs. With Grad the bear admiring Jon’s tie.

As the valedictorian’s speech came to an end, there was a loud explosion from the ceiling! Luckily Jon managed to capture it. I mean he already knew was going to happen because he had his graduation ceremony as well and for every ceremony, they will release streamers and balloons too!

The balloons then proceed to fall over the audiences.

People start to reach up to touch the balloons. Wish I was down there too. *bummed*

Like idiots we shouted at him from where we were standing (quite high up) and thankfully he turned up to look.

Then he ignored us and continued to layan his friends down there. ;P

Chee Kiang with his proud mummy after everything was over and done with.

Hi Adeline!

His graduation took place during my two weeks with the Samsung Galaxy S, so I had to use it to film him for a bit.

That’s Cynthia, one of Chee Kiang’s classmate as well.

Choon Han, as I have mentioned, who is Chee Kiang’s colleague and former classmate too.

ivy and Kenning with Chee Kiang.

To see how many things he can balance on his head.

The people from his class who ended up working at the same place.

Obligatory mortar board throwing photo.

Yay I’m in the pictures again! With Eng Hooi and her sister Cheryn.

One of the many couply photos of us, a must do on one of our graduation days. Ahem. Mine coming soon, so there’ll be more. Stay tuned.

If I didn’t wear this dress for his graduation day, it would have ended up being the one I would wear on mine. Oh well. I look like I am some academician!

This girl printed her classmate’s head and stuck it onto a cardboard as the guy didn’t come for his own graduation. Damn realistic right the head?

I was fooled by these cookies! Thought I could eat the icing but it’s just a damn sticker.

A meaningful monument outside the Cultural Centre.

The monument comes with some description.

Chee Kiang’s aunt with the AIDS poster that he had to do for his Vienna trip where he attended some AIDS conference as a delegate from Penang/Malaysia. I love the colours in this picture!

In other news, thank you to those of you who commented in my previous post about whether I should just keep my blogshop a blogshop or make it a store! I have decided to set up an online store!