5 Feb
Yesterday, I had dinner at Xing Hua Family Restaurant at Boon Keng with a few friends. My friend said the food is from Putian city in Southeast China. :)
The food was really good and pretty affordable too. Thought I’d share some photos since I really enjoyed the food there.
I can’t seem to find the address of the outlet we went to, but here is another one which I think is from the same owner/company: Xing Hua Restaurant.
If you have time, go try it for yourself! ^.^ Enjoy!
Natasha =oP
5 Feb
Have you ever wondered, what if you can’t get home? Last night I had a dream, in the dream I was out late with a girl friend and we were at a bus stop waiting for a bus. I had to take a bus home from another bus stop but I insisted on waiting with her until her bus came. Her bus came after awhile and in my dream it was 2.30am.. do buses run so late into the night?
Well after my friend got on the bus, I went to look at the bus directory board for that bus stop to see if there were any buses I could take home. I saw that I could take bus 156 home! :)) And the last bus was slated to arrive at 3.00am. Many buses came and went, but my bus 156 was a long time in coming.
Just then I saw a friend who lived in the same area as I did, I wanted to call out to him so we could make our way home together, but he was running somewhere so I ran after him… I ran and ran, and my friend turned a corner and I lost him. And I was all alone and I did not know where I was. And it was dark. How do I get home now? Everything looks so unfamiliar…
And then I woke up.
When I saw that I was in my own room, relief filled my heart. Glad that it was just a dream. :)
15 Jan
IF YOU THINK
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win but think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost;
For out in the world we find -
Success begins with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battle doesn’t always go
To the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
~Kristone~
Note: This is a variation of the original.
3 Jan
This afternoon I went to Carolyn’s place for a mini cooking gathering and to learn a thing or two about cooking from Carolyn’s friend, James, who is a chef in a restaurant.
We had aglio olio sphagetti, honey-glazed beer-drenched baked chicken, asparagus and eggplant parma.. parm.. parmigiana. Yes. Eggplant parmigiana. Yum. I love eggplant! ^.^
I learnt quite a bit from James… about whipping cream and whisking egg whites.. and how to use a knife properly! :) There were 4 of us assisting James: Carolyn, Loyalle, Wei Chuan and I. At the same time, Carolyn baked her delicious brownies (the guys were talking about it even before we reached Carolyn’s place! =p )
The kitchen was a mess, but we washed up as much as we could. :o) I really enjoyed the cooking session and of course, the dinner as well. =D Carolyn’s dad and Carolyn’s sister, Dazzlyn, also joined us for dinner. For dessert we had James’ chocolate mousse and Carolyn’s brownies which Wei Chuan helped to make as well. :)
Goodness, by the time I finished the chocolate mousse I was so full that I felt sleepy. haha =) My stomach was satisfied but most of all, I was inspired to work diligently at learning to cook (I can be quite lazy sometimes – food preparation is hard work! =S), and to keep practicing until I can cook well! (“Well” here means “edible and enjoyable!”) ^.^
So, in harmony with my 3rd New Year’s Resolution for 2010, I’m going to work hard at honing my culinary skills… but I’ll need a lot of encouragement! Haha! :))
Off to bed now to dream about eggplant parmigiana!~ Nite! =o)
+NAtz+
1 Jan
~Friendship~
A friend should be
someone who will
always be there;
To take time to listen
to help out and care.
A friend should be
someone who makes
you feel good;
Who is able to cheer
you when no one
else could.
A friend should be
warm, understanding
and true;
Someone you trust
who will let you
be you.
- Unknown
1 Jan
What do you call those things you use to solve 2009 problems that persist in 2010?
NEW YEAR RE-SOLUTIONS.
tsk. tsk.
And I have 3 of them for 2010.
1) Sleep by 11pm every night (whenever possible).
Sleeping early and waking up early is the key to good health. So please cultivate good sleeping habits and get sufficient sleep! :)
“Late to bed, late to rise; makes one lethargic, sluggish and… unwise.” – Yours truly ^.^
2) Stop complaining and be contented with what I already have.
I guess when we stop to appreciate what we have, we will realize how wealthy we are to have all we need and more. :)
“Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, it is the realization of what you already have.” – Unknown
3) Learn to cook at least 5 different Hakka dishes.
Why Hakka dishes? Because I am Hakka but I don’t speak a word of it. So I’m trying to make up for my lost heritage by acquiring Hakka culinary know-how. =p
Why is it a NY Resolution, you ask? Because I wanted to do this in 2009 but never got round to doing it. Lol.
Nat :D
26 Dec
Today is Boxing Day, the day where people are supposed to open their Christmas presents.
My best present this year was not wrapped in a box, but was delivered in an Air France plane; it is mum’s return from the UK! :)
Mum went to UK in September to do her nursing refresher course and was not expected to be home until May next year.. but because of the bad weather in London, her manager gave her a month off to come home!~ What a surprise! ^.^
In the afternoon I met Valerie for lunch at Tampopo Japanese restaurant in Takashimaya; the ramen was really good although the soup was a tad bit too salty. =P After lunch we walked around Taka for awhile, before heading to ION Orchard where we walked around some more and I got a pair f $10 shoes from rubi shoe shop. :o)
Took the train to Dhoby Ghaut to meet Elvis and return him his 2 books – “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” and “Boy Meets Girl” both by Joshua Harris, both are must-read books which I highly recommend! ^.^ Tanya came to join us soon after and we sent her Samsung touch phone for repairs at the Samsung service centre in Plaza Singapura. When that was settled, two of us took the train to Changi to receive mum at the airport!~ I was very, very excited to see mum! Ironically, I couldn’t recognize her at first because her hair had grown so long. It was Tanya who pointed her out to me. =oD
Sean reached the airport soon after mum collected her luggage, and then Dad came to fetch us all home. :) Upon reaching home, mum cooked one of her signature dishes – spicy roast chicken for dinner! :P I really miss mum’s cooking!
Well, glad she’s home now.. I love you MUM!! ^.^
Tasha :)
26 Dec
Since I returned from China, I’ve been busy with stuff.
Monday 21 Dec:
Unpacking, getting my things in order, clearing emails, FACEBOOKING!! :) And missing all my friends on the Overseas Study Mission (OSM) to China.. I was busy replying emails and writing emails to the new friends I made in China – to the NOC (NUS Overseas Colleges) students as well as the students from Tsinghua Uni and Peking Uni. ^.^
I’m SO going to get myself a QQ account and Renren.com account so I can keep in touch with all my Chinese friends! :) I just need some help with registering.. I can’t exactly read the instructions since they’re all in Chinese. Lol. =D
Tuesday 22 Dec:
Met Christine Wong at Somerset for lunch at 12.30pm. We had MOS burger at Orchard Central and ironically it’s my first time to Orchard Central and 313 @ Somerset even though being a Real Estate student, I’ve come across these two entities. =) Oh well, been too busy to go shopping at these malls, I guess!
At 2.30pm I met Jasper Chan for icecream at Mc’s in Centrepoint, to share with him some game ideas for his party thing on Friday. :) Good to catch up again although it was just a short meet up. ^.^ Headed to VivoCity to meet Sam Chua at 4.00pm and we went to some nice eating place (Sam, what’s the name of that place?) for fries and toast. Not bad, probably going to have the iLeaders dinner gathering there the week after next. :o)
Thereafter, I took the NEL to Kovan to meet Hazel, Li Ping and Kim Jee for 4 truth class bbq Christmas gathering at Kim Jee’s place. Guess what? Hing Man came with her boyfriend Darren, who happens to be Denise Ting’s brother! =) I’m beginning to realize how small the world is. (“.)
Wednesday 23 Dec:
Can’t remember what I did in the morning, time always seem to zoom by without my noticing it. :) Met Yourong at Dhoby Ghaut at 2pm and we went to The Cathay for Ben & Jerry’s icecream, then walked around Plaza Sing till it was close to 4.30pm and I went back to Bishan to meet Wan Lin for a drink. We went to coffee bean at Junction 8 and I had a muffin while she had an ice blend. =oD It was really great to just catch up again after 10 years since we graduated from primary school! :)
Then the most unimaginable thing happened. Wan Lin asked if I would like to go and visit our primary 5 & 6 form teacher, Mrs. Eugenie Yeo (then Ms. Chong), and I asked “now?” and she said “yes, now.” :) Apparently she knew where Mrs. Yeo lived because she visited her home a few years before and so Wan Lin gave Mrs. Yeo a call and asked if we could drop by. We were surprised that Mrs. Yeo so readily agreed and according to Wan Lin, she didn’t sound surprised at all by our call about the sudden visit. We wondered if Mrs. Yeo often had unexpected visitors to her home. Lol. =p
So Wan Lin and I dropped by the supermarket to get some fruit and candies for Mrs. Yeo and her family. We figured she had about 3-4 children. However, when we got to her home and were introduced to her family, we were stunned to learn that she had 5 children! :D With the youngest just born earlier this year. I just love the way Mr. and Mrs. Yeo named their 5 children – Grace, Ian, Faith, Tricia and Samuel – G.I.F.T.S!! (^.^) … Gifts from God. =o)
Later on, Kaixin and Chong Lin from our primary school class came over to Mrs. Yeo’s place as well and we took a few photos and played with the kids. Mrs. Yeo invited all of us to her place the following day (Christmas Eve) for dinner, since they were having some guests over as well. =) When we left around 9.30pm, Wan Lin and I made our way to J8 for dinner at Long John Silver’s before heading home.
Thursday 24 Dec:
The iLeaders on the extension trip returned from Shanghai. :) I was still clearing emails and trying to sort things out. Was also planning for my supposed trip to M’sia next week, calling up coach agencies for tickets and Skyping with mum about it. She suggested we (grandma and I) take a plane instead so we ended up searching for deals on budget airlines. This took up so much of my time that before I knew it I had to leave the house to meet Wan Lin at the scout house to go to Mrs. Yeo’s place for dinner. So, ticket-searching was placed on hold. =)
At Mrs. Yeo’s place there were so many people! Friends and relatives of theirs were there.. and there were so many children too! About 10-12 of them including Mrs. Yeo’s children. Goodness!~ But I had a secret weapon – I brought some gel-bubbles and started blowing them for the kids and they loved it! ^.^ Except that they enjoyed bursting the bubbles within 5 mins of getting them. -_-” All that effort gone like that.. but not wasted at all as long as the children were happy. :)) I was really glad to be able to spend more time with Tricia, Faith and Grace that day. Grace had made Christmas cards and asked us to pick one each. So sweet of her!~ =) <<see pictures below>> What a lovely way to spend my Christmas Eve!~
Friday 25 Dec:
Christmas Day!~ ^.^ I dare say I probably spent at least one-thirds of the day replying to Christmas smses.. as for the rest of the day, guess what I was doing?? I was working on my OSM report while listening to music and trying to concentrate. Hmmz. Not very successful. I only managed to write 1.5 pages of the report and I have to write at least 8 pages. =( Nvm, work now play later!~!~
So this was how I spent the last 5 days since my return from the OSM in China.. and I’m itching to go KTV to sing!~ But I’ve officially exhausted my budget for this month and the next (with all the meet-ups in the past few days), so I guess I have to limit my spending for a while. Sorry if you ask me out and I turn down your offer.. I really need to watch my budget. :) Now I’m just waiting for the new school term to begin! I’m so excited to be going back to school! ^.^
Nat :0)
25 Dec
This is the post I wrote for the iLead blog after our company visit to Lenovo in Beijing. :)
It’s Day 3 of company visits in Beijing and so much has happened; we’ve been whisked from one company to another, meeting entrepreneurs and industry leaders from start-ups and established companies, and learning so much along the way!~ ^.^
On Monday, the first company we visited was Lenovo and our host was Mr. Cory Grenier, the General Manager of Global Desktop PC. It so happened that while allocating the 24 companies to each person in our group based on their top 3 choices of companies, no one chose Lenovo. All the other companies were chosen by at least one person but none for Lenovo, hence I “adopted” Lenovo as the company to conduct research on and present to the rest of the group before the trip.
When we reached Lenovo’s office early on Monday morning, we were greeted by Adrian who was our guide for the Lenovo tour. He got Prof. Kau to kick-start the tour by throwing a paper plane into a round opening in the wall. As the paper plane flew into the hole, an animation video was launched on the wall, showing a paper plane that flew towards the entrance of the exhibition hall where we were to embark on the tour. The entire Lenovo tour was spectacular with videos, exhibits that lighted up when the specific products were introduced in the video presentations and Lenovo technologies on display that intrigued all of us in the group.
Some of Lenovo’s technologies on display are the wireless desktop with the wireless keyboard and wireless speakers, the high definition video reader, and a computerised basketball game using motion-sensing technology among others. We also saw the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch which was designed by Lenovo and some of us began taking pictures with it. =)
I simply loved the entire Lenovo presentation-exhibition tour and even before it ended, I was already sold on the Lenovo brand!~ =) To think that no one chose to research on Lenovo; even I myself did not consider Lenovo in the beginning… However, I am so glad I had the opportunity to research on it and to meet our host, Mr. Cory Grenier. Cory began his presentation on China’s internet industry, his experience working in Lenovo and some of the exciting new developments at Lenovo in the months to come.
Some of the key points I learnt are:
1) Leaders must regularly communicate with team members.
2) The company must seek out and listen to customers’ and employees’ suggestions and feedback.
3) As a brand, show that you are the best in the industry.
4) Keep up with emerging trends such as green technology, clean energy etc.
5) When working in a global company, understand the cultural differences and various working styles.
6) Focus on making your product according to customer needs.
7) Find out what your customer is willing to pay for and develop your product accordingly.
I also learnt that having the right company branding strategy is crucial especially now that brands are crafted by consumer opinions, rather than by what the company says about its own brand. Cory shared with us that Lenovo is branded as a global company although it is a Chinese company. People in countries like the USA may have misconceptions that Chinese branded products are of inferior quality, but the company has to show that it is not true. Lenovo does this by ensuring that its products cater to consumer needs and that they are of competent quality. One example is the IdeaPad for the consumer market that prefers nice colours and designs with larger hard disk space, and the other example is the ThinkPad for the enterprise market which prefers simple designs and functional units at lower costs.
The Lenovo company visit was really an enjoyable and enriching experience for me, and I hope to apply what I’ve learnt from this China study mission when I set up my own business in future.
Cheers,
Natasha ^.^
“Learn as much as you can while you are young, since life becomes too busy later.” - Dana Stewart Scott
More about Cory Grenier
> Presentation Innovation
> Chinavation
21 Dec
On 18 Dec Friday, it was the last day of company visits in China for iLEAD. We had a discussion session at 7pm with pizza dinner, and sharing about our experiences and lessons learnt from the two-week OSM, and how it impacted our entrepreneurial aspirations. :) Listening to all my friends in i4 as well as the Alumni share their experiences helped me recall and reaffirm the lessons learnt throughout this trip as well. I’m glad we all pulled through together despite how tiring it was and how rushed we were from one company to another.
After the sharing, we had the CEOS join us and the Alumni screened the i4 OSM video which they put together for us. It was full of funny shots and wonderful memories; I know friendships have been forged in this group that will last for a long time to come. Right after the video, we presented the CEOS with the token of appreciation that we got for them: Paper cuttings of their faces with a message from us. Sharon was so touched that she cried.. I’m glad we had the opportunity to work with them. They have done an amazingly wonderful job of coordinating all the visits and every detail for the entire trip, even to sacrificing sleep just to ensure that things are in order, and being flexible when there were changes to be made. ^.^ Thank you CEOS!
Then it was time for the Christmas Gift Exchange which many of us were busy shopping for in the afternoon. =) We had to guess who was the giver of our gifts and those who couldnt had to do the chicken dance thingy. o.0 Good thing I could guess that the person who gave me a gift was Hussein (He Ze Dong)!~ Lol. Thanks for the hairband and earring rack, Hussein! ^.^ Finally when all the gifts were unwrapped and thanks were exchanged, we took group photos to wrap up the night.
Thank you for the wonderful memories iLead!~
Nat (^.^)
Hi, I'm Natasha & I love to be around food, fun, family and friends. One day I hope to start a restaurant of my own and you're welcome to visit! ^.^
