Saturday @ Adventure Cove Water park!

Thanks to Mr Helios, we got free ticket to adventure cove!! That’s $33 / person O.O All bow to the Mr Generous.

Adventure Cove, here we come!

Honestly, I didn’t even know that there is a place called Adventure Cove in Singapore ^^; It’s kind of lack in marketing in comparison with its counterpart, S.E.A Aquarium. Having said so, the queue at the attractions are crazy (60 mins on average), so maybe it’s just me who was about outdated ^^;

My free tix! Thanks so much Helios!!

We saw a glimpse of smoke in the morning and was kind of worried that the haze has returned. Thankfully, it was a false alarm – weather was sunny and nice throughout the day. None of us have waterproof camera, so there were no pictures, just a fond memories of the fun we have :D It would have been troublesome anyway to bring the camera around as most of the rides doesn’t allow us to bring anything.

At the main gate :D

Team trying to plan the execution for the day

And this is the sweet nice map of the park :D

Colourful (and clean) life jackets all around

We started the adventure with Rainbow Reef. It’s another snorkelling experience for me, minus the jellyfish. I thought I would have been much composed now that it’s at a control environment, well, apparently I was not. The pool looked small but it was really deep inside, with all the corals and thousand of fishes, very similar with deep-sea experience. I was floating around and lost my sense of direction really fast. After 10 mins, I tried to look up, but the whole surrounding is really blurry. Thanks to the guys who shouted at me, I follow the sound and manage to find the end point. I was apparently going at the wrong direction =_=’’ Nothing new.

The Rainbow Reef ^^

Next destination is Riptide Rocket ride. The waiting time was showing as 40mins. We almost decided to give up and come back another time. Well, I am really glad that we didn’t. It’s the most popular (and scariest) attraction at the park, and the queue was just getting longer  in the afternoon (with waiting time more than 60 mins). I was scared but at least I know that Winson was sitting in front of me, what the worst could happen? It’s 1min 20sec ride – we started sitting on the float and end the ride with float on top of my head. Not sure what happened in between.

After the extreme water roller-coaster, other rides felt quite mild. We had the Pipeline Plunge, Tidal Twister, and finished it off with Dueling Race before going for lunch. We’re starving when we reached the Bay Restaurant. The food was tasteless but I was too hungry to even bother about it. I ordered Fish and Chips for $13.5. The 100 Plus was a live saviour. Felt so alive afterwards.

Lunch!

One of the few places where you can see that swimsuit is the recommended Dress Code

Lunch was finished at around 3pm, and then we decided to take slower rides while digesting. We go for the Adventure River, where we just lying on the float and let it took us to the tour of the park, passing through the stingray pool, glass chamber of sea aquarium, and various theme rides. It was super relaxing and fun! Now I know how it felt like to be rich and lying on the float whole day (we need to go for a hunt of float before that). It’s one of my favorite rides :D

Since we already had the float, the next was Bluewater Bay, which is basically a giant wave pool. The wave was quite strong and went as long as 15 mins. Have much fun being floated around by the wave – feeling a bit dizzy afterwards but thankfully nothing permanent. It was around 4.30pm by the time we finished Bluewater Bay. We decided to take one more attraction – Whirlpool Washout (30 mins wait for a small ride!), and then walk around to ensure that we have covered the rest of the park.

Pics taken after all the fun :D

We stopped by at Splashworks, which are filled with fun challenges with friends. I tried walking pass a block, hanging through the rope, as well as jumping from the height of 3.5m. The last one was the scariest. It didn’t look at high from side, but perspective change when I was at the top. I know things will be alright as the pool was 4m deep, but I was still… scared =.=’’ I did the jump anyway. The free fall was really scary!! For a min I don’t know what happen when I hit the pool. Afterwards I managed to float and swim to the side. I did it!

A total sunny day throughout the day :D

After all the fun, we queued for half an hour for a shower. It was 6.30pm when we finished showered and took some pictures. We went to Two Chefs Eating Place for dinner (nyummy, thanks helios for the recommendation) and then have a sound sleep at home.

The Butter Pork Ribs! The taste of milk powder was really strong *.*

The signature Tofu Mushroom - Love it!

What an awesome watery day!
ED

Glen’s Last Farewell @ Onaka, ARC

Being his colleague for 5 years, we have way too many common friends. It’s the 5th Farewell that I’m attending to say goodbye to him. I got nothing much else to say, except to wish him a smooth transition from working life to student again (which I have no doubt on that geeky).

Friday lunch was hopefully my last farewell to him– I’m not kidding when I said that I gained 2kg just because of his farewell gathering =_=’

Group Pic =D Blur but it's the best I can get from random stranger

Onaka is a healthy restaurant. I don’t know how else to describe it. Honestly, I don’t even know if it’s considered Japanese or western or Chinese. It has a mix of everything. When my friends asked me to go there last month, I felt reluctant as the price was on higher end (18++ for set lunch). After I tried the food, I surprisingly loved it and the quality was definitely worth the extra bucks spent.

They have added few more items to their set lunch, and I took 10 mins trying to decide what to eat.

Appetizer - Carrot Cake! Looks more like fried egg, no? But it tasted good :D

Tofu Sandwich :D Can't remember the full name but it's a real balance between quality and quantity. Love!

Vitality Tea - Fooled by the name, it's actually Cinnamon! Which I don't like T_T

Despite being so crowded, the food was served quite fast and we're having a great time :) I will go back there again for a less sinful lunch option ^^ (or whenever anyone is paying :p)

Alright Glen, has a wonderful one month holiday in China and study hard in US!

ED

Handy’s Farewell @ Lake Shore BBQ

Handy; the Mr. Secretive; told us last week that he got a job in Indonesia and leaving Singapore soon. We asked when is he going back and he told us that it’s in 10 days! =_=’ That leaves us with only 1 weekend to plan for his farewell. Lucky for us, we managed to book a BBQ pit at Inche’s Condo for Saturday.

Blazers Family :)

After that conversation on Sunday, we were greeted by haze the following Monday, which didn’t subdue until Friday. We’re quite skeptical if we’ll still be able to continue with the BBQ as the PSI reached Hazardous level. We did a lot of alternative planning during the week, but then decided to accept the risk and see how is the weather on Saturday itself.

Miraculously, the sky brightened up on Saturday afternoon, and the PSI was ranging around two-digit number for the first time of the week! I seriously can’t believe our luck :D I reached Lake Shore at around 5pm, watch few matches of Singapore Open Semi Finals, and then went down to start the BBQ preparation at 5.45pm.

The last BBQ feels so long ago – I think it was during Rina’s farewell almost one year ago. We had our usual job distribution, with me as the amateur photographer and professional eater.

The food! I thought the portion is decent, but it ended up too much O.O 

Nice Traditional Cake - especially nice to eat while waiting for the BBQ to be ready

The Professional Fire Starter - Dhany & Tomy

The Kitchen Area - Tatsu Kun & Helios

The Quality Control - Fendi

The Professional Eaters :D

The Chef ^^

We had much fun eating and chatting. I don’t really know what I ate, but I was full so soon +_+ Time flies and I was really surprised when the security guard came and told us we have 15 mins to packed up. It’s almost 10pm! O.O Anyway, we packed up really quickly and managed to leave on time.

A bunch of grads trying to understand why we can't see sunset and sunrise from the same place =.=' 

The delicious dessert which was gone within 3 mins.

 Handy, my birthday buddy (read: the one whose b’day always celebrated along with mine), I wish you all the best for your new career! :)
ED

Friday Dinner at Boston Seafood Shack + Black Ball Signature

Friday is identic with long dinner, and we decided to explore the restaurants in the mall we passed through everyday – Star Vista. Most of the restaurants are food chains – Texas, Coco Ichibanya, Manhattan Fish, etc. We decided to go to the one we never tried before – Boston Seafood Shack.

Boston Seafood Shack - The Menu!

The restaurant serves seafood platter and anything seafood-y. It’s quite similar with Manhattan, even the price range. The place was spacious and the service was quite good. The food quality is comparable with Manhattan (if not better). I don't understand why it’s lack of popularity compared with its Manhattan’s rival.

His - Grill Wild King Snapper ($16) - The fish sauce is quite unique!

Mine - Crabmeat Porcini Cream Sauce ($12) - Love the cream! :p

Based on the orders from other diners, its signature seems to be the Boston Seafood Bucket ($17) and Caribbean Feast ($22), which are part of their Premium Batter Fish and Chips. We, being not-so-young anymore, decided to skip the fried stuff and went for dessert instead :p

Black ball dessert is located at the outer side of Star Vista. I think their business more or less affected by the haze. It’s normally impossible to find a seat there, but this time around we can find indoor seating within a min. We tried the black ball signature cool ($4.9). I love it :D There are actually various toppings to choose. As the first timer, we go for the standard toppings. I’m going to try the others next time!

Dessert - Black Ball Signature ($4.9) - I love all the stuff inside :D

After the dinner, we went home and watch movie at our own cinema – Ip Man the Final Fight & Hangover 3.

… and that’s for a 400 PSI Friday night.
ED

PMP Exam - The Journey

The exam has been haunting me since I enrolled in April. I couldn't watch movie in peace or read novel without feeling guilty. I even swear that I wouldn't play Candy Crush until my exam finished in June. Still, my intensive study started only two weeks before the exam =_=' My manager gave me one week of study leave (he is so supportive!) which really helps me to focus.

3 months for this piece of black-white printout :s

This is my first real exam after graduation (5 years ago) and I kind of forget how to study. The last time I studied was in air-con library with friends and past-year papers. This time there is no air-con (never underestimate its value!) and I got no past-year paper to refer to. To distract me further, I got the haze and the heat and the PSI reading to catch every hour.

Despite doing 5000 questions online, I still didn't feel confident and couldn't really sleep well the day before exam ^^; Too many people know that I'm taking exam (me and my big mouth) and I have a big explanation to give if I failed after the 5 days study leave. I'm pretty sure I dreamt about 42 processes and 9 knowledge areas yesterday.

I woke up at 2am, tried to sleep again, and finally felt really sleepy at 6am ^^; I woke up anyway at 6.30am and got ready to fight the battle with a pen and a mask. The exam location was at International Plaza, thankfully very conveniently located outside Tanjong Pagar MRT.

The exam floor - quite slick huh :D

@Comet!

The Coffee Machine - Reminds me of the training days 3 months ago

The free goodies! The reason I love training

Despite hearing experience from different people, I didn't really have any idea how the exam process like. Once I reached the place, the person asked if I was there to take Prometric Exam. I said Yes and she then asked me to sit down at a long bench beside a room. There were few more people along with me and they were all taking different exams! Within 10 mins, I was called to go to the room (which was like an investigation room), asked to take out everything I had (even watch!) and she continued scanning me using the airport-like metal detector (if I want to cheat I also won't cheat using metal paper? but anyway). At the same place there are different monitors showing CCTV from different rooms - I guess to prove that they records people who are taking exam, so no cheating!

The set of rules to read before going in to the Investigation Room

After cleared, I was being guided to another room, which looks like an internet cafe with few cubicles and a computer at each cubicle. It's of course the exam room - I was seated at cubicle #11 and I wasn't allowed to take any picture or make any noise afterwards :x They are really quite strict about all this - we're not even allowed to bring a pen or blank paper - all are provided at the cubicle. I asked if I can bring my jacket in, she said can after a bit of hesitation, and then asked me not to take it off for the whole exam duration ^^;; Whats the logic?

I was quite surprised that I actually used up all the 4 hours provided. I finished answering all the questions in 2.5hrs, and took another 1.5hrs for review. I normally finished 200 questions within 1.5 hours and I thought I would be done with review in another half an hour. 

To make things more exciting on an already stressful exam, I stepped into the power cord during the 3rd hour and my monitor made some noise and turned black!! After 5 secs it actually turned on again by itself. For a second I thought I will have to redo the whole exam T_T I'm really not that strong.

After I clicked "Finish" on the exam, the screen went on processing mode. I was looking expectantly, holding my breath - waiting to see the result. When some text come out, it's actually a... survey form =_='' what an anti-climax! I have to finish the survey form before given the announcement. Huhu. Maybe because they afraid people will just crush the computer if they know they failed or will give bad survey. I complained anyway saying that the place is noisy (I can hear the other room giving Ms Word Training! really distracting).

I felt so relieve when I see the "Congratulations" word at the screen. I expected some music to play but nothing. As I went out, I saw some people still diligently taking the exam. Hope them all the best of luck too!

Back home, I felt quite overwhelmed - now I can do whatever I want!! Should I go watch movie, play candy crush, read novel, or eat KFC? Of all the choices I have, I ended up cleaning my room and washing toilet =_=' I'm boring like that.

Boxed-up the books for giveaway :p

I somehow felt that I'm too old for all these studying things. My heart is now too weak for exam pressure ^^; I really admire those people who can continue to study while working and taking all the various certifications. If I want to take further study, exam will be something I really have to think through before making the commitment.

For now, I'm just thankful :D
ED

Breaking PSI Records!

This week is all about haze.

It's not the first time in Singapore, but this year is the worst. It hits the record high of 400 PSI (as of today), which constitutes to Hazardous level. I'm annoyed with the smokes, and at the same time feel quite excited being part of this record breaking news :p I'm sure that NEA website is the most visited website this week. Everyone is refreshing it every half an hour to check if there is any update on the PSI.

Trend of the Month - Thanks Winson for the mask!

The view outside the house

There is not much of physical impact for me (as of now) since I'm staying indoor most of the time. I still go to gym and eat as usual wearing mask - not much changes apart from the a bit of burning sensation on my eyes because of the smokes.

Got a few outdoor activities planned which are in the risk of being cancelled :( Not sure how long will it take for the whole thing to finally subsides, but I do believe that we'll be much more appreciate of fresh air after this.

Reporting from the site,
ED

1001 Food @ Buona Vista

By 1001 I mean 11 :p Maybe by the end of the year, I would have conquered the real 1001 items. It's my third week here and I started to explore the nearby area - pleasingly surprised to know that there are so many good food around! (and thankfully a gym nearby to balance it off)

These are the ones from Jumbo Coffee Hub (just across the street):

Holland Village XO Fish Soup - nice but always long queue - $7

Western Food - the Chicken chop is MUST TRY! The sauce is really unique - $4.5

Fishball Kuey Teow from the same foodcourt - nice & cheap - $2.5

I'm so gonna return for this - Century Egg Porridge - $2.5

And then, from another food court (just beside the block - 3 mins walk):

My favourite Indian Food - Briyani! haha - $4.5 

I never tried Indian Rojak before and decided to give it a shot - tasty! $4.5

The food court also has a decent Zhi Char :D - San Lor Hor Fun - $5

From the same Zhe Char Stall - Hokkien Mee - $5 (almost everything is $5)

And then, going a bit further (10 mins walk), we got Ghim Moh Market! 100 of stalls which will take some time to explore.

Hakka Yong Tau Foo - $3.5

And then, we got a loving neighbour who gave us Herbal Tea the other day:

Home-made Herbal Tea - Priceless!

And then of course, I got own chef at home :p

Instant Noodle - Try to clear before it expired

Live is good,
ED