Frienster - Memorial, and Goodbye!

It has been awhile since the last time I login to Friendster.

Out of curiosity, I tried to login last week and figured out that I can't find my profile anymore. My picture has been transformed to an avatar and my profile is now an unknown game site!

Some blue creature on my profile page :s

Did a quick search today and realized that all the photos and testimonials have been deleted :( I guess it was done around July 2011. What a loss! The sad thing is, there was no warning or heads up of the deletion at all, which would have helped some nostalgic people (like me :p) to take  backup or screenshot before it changed totally. Friendster sent me friends update every week! It won't be that tough to send a heads up for the deletion =( oh well... my hundreds of hard earned precious testimonials!

NO WAY to recover any photos or testimonials! :x

For some reason, I have a snapshot of my Friendster profile page! All the way back in 2004 when I was such a narcissist... (I guess I still am). I can't really recall why on earth did I took the screenshot. I guess because there was some error saying that I got no friend... so I was so shock.

Friendster back in 2004 - so blocky!

Frienster in 2009 - this snapshot was taken because I notice some error in location details

I missed the good old Frienster! I remember I got quite tense when it started showing "Profile Viewed", which basically means "How popular you are". And it soon became quite tough to stalk on people because your visit is noted - with name!

Back to 2012, I browsed my new profile page for 1 min... and decided that the page has been so alien to me I don't want to keep it. So I hit the deactivate button.

I'm super sad you deleted all my pics and testimonials! :x

So, Bye Frienster! Thanks for being a part of me from 2004 to 2007.
ED

First Visit to Queenstown Swimming Complex

This Saturday is HOT! It makes me feel so lazy to go anywhere.... at the same time, makes me feel uncomfortable and sweaty at home... I started to fill in my HDD with data, hoping that it will help to distract me from the heat, but NO! I can still feel my sweat T_T~

In the end, I decided to pull Winson and we went to Queenstown Swimming Complex. The swimming pool is located around 15 mins walk from our place, but we have never been there before. In fact, it's my first time went to public swimming pool... (of course, I know how to swim not so long ago)

We reached there at around 5pm... the sun was shining directly to the pool and was super warm, but there are lots of people swimming anyway. I decided to join in with the risk of skin cancer :p

The swimming pool is massive. I seldom swim at Olympic size swimming pool. It felt like forever to finish one lap (even though it's still easier than 1 lap of running, I must admit). The water is warm. So many people blocking the way, and why the water is salty?? ~.~ Despite all the complains, I still swam happily until the sun went down. Think about it, I haven't been swimming for the past 3 months at least. Kind of miss it!

After swimming and showering (the shower room is quite huge! too bad no pic allowed), we went to Mei Ling for dinner. Had a bowl of filling fish noodle soup before coming back home. Reached home, the heat started to haunt me again T_T guess I will start with the movie night now and try to sleep early for exercise tomorrow.

Time for Glee!
ED

Side story: I went to ICA early in the morning today and came back empty handed with hurtful comment, "Unfortunately, Ms. Diana, you're hardly eligible" T_T

I got an External HDD!

My very first external HDD :D

Saw the promotion at Challenger - 750GB WD Elements Portable for SGD 133 from the usual SGD 179. I considered it for one minute, then decided to grab the deal.

The Promotional Poster which lured me away!

Back home, I flipped through newspaper and found out the same deal at BEST Denki for SGD 99 =__='' Aaaa! What a short lived happiness.

... and then... The Promotion Poster which set me back to earth

Anyway, it's really tough to keep up with promotion these days. So many discounts flying around, I feel almost cheated if I have to pay anything in the normal price.

Today itself, we have dinner at The Manhattan Fish Market: 1 for 1 Grill Catch of the Day.

Manhattan Fish Market Coupon!! Seeing it for the first time

We paid total of SGD 15.10 instead of SGD 30.20 for Grill Catch of the Day!

For the last two weeks, I have been enjoying SGD2 instead of SGD3.95 for McD Fish O Fillet. Today, I received another promotion for McSpicy SGD 2.9 instead of SGD 4. 25. And yes, I still have the coupon of BK Set Meal at SGD 3.95. The price war is CRAZY! I don't know if I'm actually benefited or overspent because of this.

Back to electronic, I'm again eyeing to the Sony camera. There are this Sony Days 2012 coming up this weekend at Suntec, with promotions of Sony NEX-C3 - SGD 1,099 with 2 lens + free gifts. I want it badly, but I can't find a reason good enough for me to get a new camera. My Panasonic LX-3 is still working fine. Sigh!

Fighting with shopping urge,
ED

Berlayer Creek, I'm back!

Today we have another farewell lunch. It's at Shahi Maharani - a north Indian cuisine buffet restaurant.

The key word in the sentence above is... BUFFET! There have been so many occasions this month which involved free flow of food. Promotions treat, farewell treat, bonus treat, birthday treat, and even getting well treat. Being a girl with weak heart towards food, I just accept all those treats with open hands.

Now I seriously don't know what to do with the fats T_T

All those guilty feelings finally built up... enough to let me kick start the run again from the new office. It's nice... but I gotta admit that it built its own guilty feeling, too. Instead of the usual 1 hour run, I have to go for 1 1/2 hour since now the place is so far away. Overall, it will take around 2 hours from changing the cloth until getting back to work in office. Now I feel guilty to be away from office for so long =__='

It will take time to strike the balance again between meals, sports, and work. For now, I just wish that my sneezing will stop soon before I get the nose blocked and bad mood again.

Can't believe Feb is wrapping up!
ED

Guide in Ordering Economical Rice

I saw this from my friend's facebook and found it practical.... so would like to keep it for further reference. I actually tried out the first three rules... and really got a better deal! The second rule rocks!

Credit to someone in hardware zone who started this :)

Stingy mood,
ED

East Coast Park once more

Well, my first and only visit to East Coast Park 3 years ago didn’t end very well (ended at Changi Hospital, to be exact). Ever since, I have been hesitating when friends invited me there, especially if it’s for cycling.

This time around though, I decided to go there once again and wished for a better experience. It ended quite fun.

I remembered that East Coast Park is not that accessible, but I forgot how far it is from any MRT. We were lucky enough to find an express bus from Bugis, which take us to East Coast within 20 minutes. Afterwards, we walked for around 25 minutes before finally reached the meet-up point at 4.25pm. There was no one around when we reached… Since we were 5 minutes early, we though we would help to hog some seat, get a cup of coffee, and wait.

Duckie on my Cappuccino!

...And wait. And WAIT. Time hit 5pm and no one showed up! T_T It was after 5.30pm that everyone finally came. We went straight for the bike rental. I, still not ready to take another risk of cycling, decided to go for the group cycling type of bicycle. Thanks Elvi for the company =)

Pinky Two Seater Bike

The place was so crowded, but the ride was fun. The weather was so good, I don’t really feel tired even after one hour of cycling. After cycling, we went for the second highlight of the day – Dinner!

Cycling and taking shots at the same time :p

There were so many choices of restaurant around that area. We ended up in Ju Shin Jung, a Korean restaurant located just next to the bike rental place. The restaurant looks old from outside, but turned out to be quite spacious and clean inside. We even get two private rooms for our group!

I assumed it reads as "Ju Shin Jung"

Inside the restaurant at Level 2

We decided to go for ala-carte. We ordered some dishes and share among us. The food was decent, but I quite like the service. Free side dishes, free tea, free water, and even free dessert (fruit + ginger tea)! The food was served pretty quick and the waitress was pretty attentive (despite some can’t speak English)

Side dishes! :)

Kimchi Steamboat

Grilled Unagi

Seafood Steamboat

Kimchi Pancake with tong (forgot to remove before the pic)

After dinner was…. Cake time!

Crystal Jade's Black Forest - So Nyummy!

Group Pic - "Say Kimchii"

Lovely Dessert afterwards

We walked out from the restaurant at around 10pm. Couple of us decided to go back early while the rest continue with a walk around east coast. Have I said that the place is not really accessible? It took us half an hour to find a bus stop, and another half an hour to find the nearest MRT. I reached back home at around 11.45pm. Totally exhausted and overslept the next day ^^;

Will try the real cycling next time!
ED

KFC, Run, and Countries + Capitals Part 2 - Europe Continent

Finally used up one of my 6 KFC quota for the year. And I finally recovered from cough. Maybe I just need KFC to recover. No KFC for the last three months has been quite a challenge for a KFC addict like me. I didn’t even know that they have changed their slogan from “Finger Licking Good” to “So Good”!

First KFC of the Year - So Good! :p

KFC aside, my 21KM resolution is kind of at risk. I haven’t been doing my evening jog since I moved to new office. As the result, I felt so breathless when I jog on Saturday morning. T_T My first “formal” jog this year will be on 22nd April – 10 KM on Run350, compliment from the bank :p (too bad they didn’t sponsor 21KM). Time to go back to regular exercise! Or I won’t be able to even beat my own timing.

I finally improved slightly on my Geography and learnt the 52 countries + capitals yesterday while doing my morning jog (talk about killing two birds with one stone). Some of the countries I never know existed in Asia (Krgyzstan?). Thanks to the resolution, now I know that it’s part of South Central Asia and its capital city is Bishkek. Time for the second set of countries for... Europe!

Eastern Europe

1. Belarus - Minsk 
2. Bulgaria - Sofia 
3. Czech Republic - Prague 
4. Hungary - Budapest 
5. Moldova - Chisinau
6. Poland - Warsaw 
7. Romania - Bucharest 
8. Russian Federation - Moscow 
9. Slovakia - Bratislava 
10. Ukraine - Kiev

Northern Europe

1. Denmark - Copenhagen
2. Estonia - Tallinn
3. Faroe Islands (Denmark) - Tórshavn
4. Finland - Helsinki
5. Greenland (Denmark) - Nuuk (Godthab, Godthåb)
6. Iceland - Reykjavik
7. Ireland - Dublin (City)
8. Latvia - Riga
9. Lithuania - Vilnius
10. Northern Ireland (UK) - Belfast
11. Norway - Oslo
12. Scotland (UK) - Edinburgh - Glasgow
13. Sweden - Stockholm
14. United Kingdom - London
15. Wales (UK) - Cardiff

Southern Europe

1. Albania - Tirana
2. Andorra - Andorra la Vella
3. Bosnia and Herzegovina - Sarajevo
4. Croatia (Hrvatska) - Zagreb
5. Cyprus - Nicosia (Lefkosia)
6. Gibraltar (UK) - Gibraltar
7. Greece - Athens
8. Holy See (Vatican City State) - Vatican City
9. Italy - Rome - Milan (Metro)
10. Macedonia, Rep. of - Skopje
11. Malta - Valletta
12. Montenegro - Podgorica
13. Portugal - Lisbon
14. San Marino - San Marino
15. Serbia - Belgrade
16. Slovenia - Ljubljana
17. Spain - Madrid
18. Turkey - Ankara - Istanbul

Western Europe

1. Austria - Vienna (Wien)
2. Belgium - Brussels
3. France - Paris
4. Germany - Berlin
5. Liechtenstein - Vaduz
6. Luxembourg - Luxembourg
7. Monaco - Monaco
8. Netherlands - Amsterdam
9. Switzerland - Bern - Zürich

Why each continent have 52 countries? And why some are repeat from Asia's? Something fishy!

ED

Valentine’s Day at TCC

I’m not sure what to elaborate for Valentine’s Day. I’m happy to be able to spend the time together with him, just like any other day. We went for dinner as usual. Anchor Point was crazily crowded on that day. It was full almost everywhere – Secret Recipe, TCC, and one and half hour queue for Jack’s Place. I was so tempted to go for KFC, but he was strongly against it, so we finally settled for TCC.

Despite the crowded space, the waitress was thankfully very polite and attentive. It helped to make the one hour wait bearable before we finally got our dinner. I had “Shrooms & Splash Gratin”, which was sinful but good :) It was around 9pm when we finally back home.

Shrooms & Splash Gratin - full of shrimps!

We watched some movies (was it The Three Musketeers?) and then rest for the day. Despite the festive feeling, it was unfortunately a normal weekday and we still have to work the next day.

Thanks for always being here for me,
ED

Saturday dinner at BERGS Burger

Understandably, Raffles Place is not a common place to be visited during weekends, except when you got no choice (e.g. get an urgent call from boss to come back to office). This time though, we went to Raffles on a Saturday night, for a sake of a burger.

BERGS - Gourmet Burger

Far East Square was like a dead town when we reached there at 7pm. Granted, BERGS Burger was like dead restaurant. There is no single customer. We ordered and got the queue number 1. It felt like we have booked the whole restaurant ^^;

Queue No#1 - and we're really the only customer soul in the restaurant

Feeling hungry after the jog earlier, I ordered their famous Miss Piggy ($11.5)– A burger filled with Prime Beef Pattie and Streaky Bacon. Winson ordered Porto Polo ($10) – burger filled with Grilled chicken breast and Cajun spices – which he said was just standard. We ordered additional drink + fries ($4). I was quite surprised to find out that there is no additional tax or service charge.

Happy with my Miss Piggy - Not sure why its call piggy when it's a beef tough..

The one thing that I can hardly get used is the way they served the food. Dine In or take away, they packed your food as ready to go ^^; No plate, no fork, no knife.

This is the food for Dine in ~.~

We finished the burger in 30 minutes, then went for a walk to Chinatown area and took a bus back to home =) It was a nice quick dinner. Saw a guy playing tiny tower all the way from bus stop till we get down at Queenstown MRT. It’s that addictive ^^; Back home, we watched Tower Heist. Stopped half way as we need to have good sleep for badminton the next day.

Miss Piggy - Still remember to take a pic before I gulp it all 

Enjoying weekend,
ED

If the world is like the movie "In Time"

"In Time" is a movie from Justin Timberlake. Despite the mediocre story line, I really like the concept of the movie. It's said that by the time people hits 25 years old, they stopped aging, and they 'life watch' will start counting down. Everyone got 1 year to start with, when they work, they will get their salary in terms of days. When they want to buy lunch, they use time as currency. 1 coffee equals to 3 minutes. 1 bus ride equals to 30 minutes. one car equals to 50 years. Basically, time equals to money (literally). Isn't it awesome?

It helped to reduce at least one dimension in people life, and will simplify life by A LOT. There won't be anymore situation where people are rich but sick. Or rich but old. Or young but poor. So long as you have time, you can buy anything you want. And when you run out of money (time), you will simply die - no suffering no nothing :p

I really like the idea of the movie... For some reason I felt that it will be a very efficient world. Things will be less complicated. Maybe that's the reason why the story line was so mediocre. It's not easy to find intriguing scenario in such an efficient world. Haha...

If I have 1000 years... I can do almost anything... and sure that I will be young forever. Wow! Oh no, I'm really thrilled to have that kind of world XD

$$ minded,
ED

First week at Mapletree Business City

It feels like forever to end my first week in Mapletree Business City. I miss my Monday exercise. I miss my Tuesday jog. I miss my Thurs Yoga. Most of all, I miss the Canteen's Mini Hotpot.

MBC is good and bad in its own way. The high rise floors and people walking around in suits did make you feel more like working in a financial industry. The thing is... it impacts my self confidence and I hate people looking at you from head to toe everyday T_T

The empty Lift 

The empty office

I reached office at usual before 9am. Now there are additional steps before I can go in and enjoy my coffee. I have to tap at the turnstile, wait for the lift, go to level 12, tap at the door, walk the half floor to my seat, grab my cup and walk 3/4 of the floor to reach to coffee machine. What worse, the coffee machine was faulty! It crunched out cold coffee... which was... yikes. 

As I took the 3 minutes walk back to my seat, I realized how cold the office was. Part of it was because there are only 30 of us for the 300 people floor. Thankfully I got my blazer which keep me warm (but uncomfortable) for the rest of the day.

My seat is facing the window, which is quite awesome as I can always gaze out and look at some nature (even though only breeks and road). The bad thing is... my seat is right beside my boss =__='' I don't know who is more disadvantaged in this case. It's now a little harder for him to browse since I can see directly to his screen ^^;

My smaller table - still messy as usual!

Fast track, I passed my one week with 4 days staying late in office (thanks to all the call), 0 exercise (I feel so terrible), and 3 times having dinner alone :( On Friday evening, all our team members went back to Alexandra for a drinking session. A place which used to be just 2 minutes walk has become 20 minutes walk. I missed the place dearly T_T I felt so lonely. Hopefully things will be better next week. 100 more people are coming. It will be at least warmer.

Drinks on Friday

First group picture with the first batch of people in new office :)

Adapting,

ED

When things didn’t turn out as expected

Expectation is a dangerous thing. The higher you set it, the harder the disappointment hits when things go wrong. This happens to me on the annual announcement day. I blamed myself to be so naively believed all the things promised to me. It sets my confidence so high above. Now that nothing is as promised, I don’t know how long will it take for me to recover.

If there is anything I re-learnt from this incident, it’s to always keep your expectation low. Keep things real and always have the worst-case scenario in mind. I admit that I kind of lose it because of all the promises and pressure to keep selling myself in the past year.

Lastly, never put all your life to work. You know it has the highest risk of disappointing you, more than friends and family.

Having a relatively tough assessment T_T
ED

Last Day of Chinese New Year – Lunch at Pioneer Garden Restaurant

I love lunch gathering! :D It's time when and I can eat and blame the guilt to other people who organize the lunch. After a sinful lunch last Friday, we went for another sinful lunch this Monday. CNY set menu for $58. I didn't manage to get a snap for each dish, but I personally preferred the food last friday ^^;

The restaurant name is Pioneer Spring Restaurant, located at Mount Faber Safra. I used to have the luxury of just following Glen and get a seat in one of the VP's car and get out when we arrived. This time around, it was a bit chaotic.

It was the first day I moved to Mapletree, and it took me 15 mins to walk from the new office to Alexandra. By the time I reached, none of the people are around anymore. The location was changed last minutes from Jumbo to this restaurant. I hadn't research on how to get there and was a bit lost. I called up the organizer but she didn't pick up. Long story short, I invited two new grads and shared a taxi with them to the restaurant.

A bit unlucky for us, the taxi driver didn't know the location, just like all of us. The place was located 5 minutes away from Alexandra office, but we ended up spending half an hour, traveling all the way to Jewel Box Mount Faber, then passing back our office =_= We reached there so late... Everyone was waiting for us to do the lo-hei. Feel very bad. The taxi driver was kind enough and asked us to pay only 5 dollar instead of the taxi meter of 12 dollar.

Lo Hei!

5 mins later, the fish was unrecognizable anymore 

Group Pic!

My table has more guys, and the table topic was so serious - like on how their wife give birth =_=They explained it in such a details that I almost lost appetite T_T Lucky for me, they speak in fluent chinese and I can only understand half of the scary stories.

The way back home was quite interesting, too. There are 5 of us and slipped into one taxi. The uncle didn't realize it until half way, and then forced one of us to go down. He said that if caught he needs to pay 200 each, and it's way too risky. In the end Felix sacrifice himself and come down for us. Sob sob, thanks, Felix!

I reached back office at around 2.30pm, and my boss was checking where I was +_+... It's not fun to sit beside your boss. God I miss my old seat!

Drawing close CNY spirit,
ED

Felicia & Aunt's Visit

When I woke up at 10am on a Saturday morning, I noticed a miscall from a stranger number. I wondered who tried to call me at 7am in the morning, but my ignorance was even stronger than my curiosity, so I didn’t return the call “They will be smart enough to text me if it’s really important”. When I showered, the same number rang again. This time, it was followed by a text message. I read the message and…. OMG! I then realized that I have just ignored calls from my mum’s sister!! O.O I quickly called them back and apologized. Apparently they are in Singapore. Felicia, my cousin, is looking for accommodation; as she will be here from next month onwards for study at Sunrice Culinary School, major in bakery. We agreed to meet up on Sunday.

They were staying at Oasia Hotel; a new hotel located 1 min from Novena MRT. I wanted to check out the place as they said the cost was quite affordable (less than $200). Too bad, they actually checked out on that day to move to MBS (the hotel I hated the most so far). I ended up meeting them at MBS. The new Circle Line Bayfront MRT has recently opened in Jan 2012. I tried it out and wowed by its convenience! I used to hate MBS because of its inaccessibility (apart of many other things). Now at least that point can be removed. I took MRT from Queenstown, went to City Hall, entered Circle Line at Esplanade, then stop at Bayfront MRT. The MRT is connecting both the hotel and shopping center.

I met my relatives at the MBS’s Kopitiam. They were ordering the so-called famous food in Singapore – Hokkien Mie, fried oyster, Char Kway Teow. I wanted to invite them for a lunch, but in the end got invited instead ^^; They shared the food with me, which surprisingly tasted quite good! Is quality is really inline with price, or I was just hungry?

After lunch, we went to shop around MBS, checked in, and then went for another food trip to Esplanade, No Signboard Restaurant. I have been there a few times, but this time they are at their utmost arrogance. When I said I wanted to order crab, they said “Sorry, the crab is limited now, and we can serve it only for people who has made reservation”. WHAT! Almost everyone comes here for the crab… if you don’t have crab might as well just close for the day. Luckily, I did call for reservation earlier, and hence still able to order. What I don’t like was their ways of telling me off without even checking. Sigh!

@MBS Shopping - Never know there is LV Museum inside

Complain aside, we had a nice tea break there. We ordered two type of crab – Butter and Chili. They loved the Butter crab but said that the chili crab was kind of mediocre. They said Surabaya has a restaurant, which used the exact same sauce for the chili crab. Wow. I personally still love the chili crab the most. The white pepper crab is a big No, so we didn’t order that.

With 2nd Aunt's Family

After the food, we had a stroll back to hotel. I went to the Level 57 to show them the infinity pool. It was so crowded that we can hardly take any decent pictures =__= We relax for a while until around 5pm, and then they went to take a look at some accommodation, while I decided to go back home. They gave me like 5kg of biscuits from Indonesia O.O Can serve as my breakfast for the whole year. 

Beside Infinity Pool - Have to photoshop to remove the swimming people

They stayed until Tuesday, and then went back to Surabaya. My cousin will be back next month and start studying. It was really a nice catch up… I haven’t seen them since 6 years ago when I last visited Surabaya. My Aunt’s face looked so alike with mum… so alike that talking to her is like talking to mum! Haha… I really want to go to Surabaya again one day, if I get a chance to.

Why must everyone pick MBS to stay? T_T
ED

Chingay 2012 – A Waterway Parade of Love and Care

Thanks to Inche, we got a subsidized ticket to Chingay Parade for 2012 ($27 for the $60 tickets at Cat 1). I learnt that Chingay parade is actually held to celebrate Chinese New Year. This year, to follow the theme of “Water Dragon”, the parade was held in waterway, and yes, there are countless dragons marching out in the full 2 hours event.

We gathered at 5pm for a quick dinner at Thai express. Afterwards, we walked to the event place through Marina Square. Managed to catch a lovely decoration as we passed by :)

Chinese New  Year Decoration at Marina Square

The gate was opened at 7pm, and we reached there just nice at 7pm! We managed to get right through in, and find out seat without any problem. There was a bit of long wait after we entered until the start of the parade at around 8.30pm. We watched the sky turned from blue to orange to dark.

The Ticket! :D We're at Green Zone

At our seat =)

The booklet :) Included in the goodie bag was rabbit candies and DYI windwheel

Thankfully, the event was worth the wait. There are 8 segments in total, and I was totally awed by the performances. The stage was at least 200meter long, and they have people from all direction covered :) The performances were splendid. I guess my camera didn’t do any justice to the photo, but here are the photos anyway!

The highlight of the year! Dragon! and its Phoenix partner at the other end

First Ride, sponsored by Singapore Flyer

Swan by India!

Pyramid from Japan!

NUS!

Another NUS! Where is NTU! *Jealous Mode ON

From New Creation Church! My favourite!

From Government, I guess

From Muslim Society!

The most impressive show for me - Tai Chi by 1000 performers! And it's so neat!

Fireworks! The closest I ever watch fireworks in my life, without getting stepped on

The Grand Ending

It's good to feel the live experience, at least for once. I saw the Chingay airing in TV on Sunday. The performances were all very close-up and good. I guess the only dimension missing was how big the stage really!

Dragon here Dragon there,
ED