SHIFTED

hi all,

simply reminisce would be closed with effect from now.
will be blogging at two other spots (:


MYLIFETHOUGHTS,RAVES&RANTS:
Divine Redefined (http://divinedegree.blogspot.com)


MY FOOOOODBLOGGG:
Divine Essentials (http://divinejoybites.blogspot.com)

catch me there!

cheers,
elaine.

):

things are just NOT doing fine within my family.

everyone's taking everyone for granted.
everyone is misunderstanding things.
everyone sees no family in this family.
everyone treats their friends better than anyone in the family.
everyone thinks their own way.
everyone doesn't care about each other's feelings.
everyone cant comprehend my condition.
everyone is conflicting with the other.
everyone has our own things to worry about.
everyone is giving one another cold attitudes at different times.

at any one time, at least someone is quarrelling.
at any one time, at least someone feels hurt
at any one time, at least someone feels that he/she dont belong to this family.
at any one time, either me & dad are throwing emo smses to each other.

& there is still a period of adolescent darkness i can never forget.
plus more and more periods of stress and despair.

school exams & pressure + family.
i wonder how long more i can endure.

nice food? medicine? gorging?
all these are all short-terms measures.

& how do you even call this a FAMILY?
it no longer is, anymore..

The Cny 2009

...was lifeless.

okay, no one's dead (choy) but i merely felt that its becoming less happening as the years go by. the number of houses to visit pathetic, the angbaos received reduced, the money collected cut-down, the people to meet lessened, the festive atmosphere and fun... almost inexistent. omg what on earth is the cny season coming to?

and i do agree with matthew that its only gonna get worse with time. the elaboration of cny is soon to fade and reduced to a mere tradition.

that's so sad ):

well, just ignore my sadistic point-of-view.

the only unchangeable fact is my love for the annual festive goodies!


mei zhen xiang's bak gwa..
i countdown to newyear for this okay! =D




(dad's side) grandma makes a superb luo han zai~ i can easily finish the whole tub in one sitting, heh.




and (mum's side) grandma's never short of creativity.. this year we had an additional mixed fruits yusheng! how cool is that?

Reunions.
(all photos are a mix from both the compact cam & dslr)




For the maternals, it was a terrible experience at Greenland vegetarian restaurant. i meant the food and service really sucked ):




love the cousins!

The paternals, pace was madness. we booked the first dinner shift at Jumbo Seafood and had the rush-est meal ever. totally defeats the purpose of a reunion dinner! (& i conveniently reused my dress cause i'm lack of new clothes!)



with mummy, at Clake Quay Riverside Point



daddy







new flower/plants-shopping after that- another unpleasant thing to encounter. i was stuck with the flower pots till we reached home ):

btw, sis' car's foldable-seats-function is really pretty handy.

Da Nian Chu Yi.


pink for luck (:




to grandma's place..









my entertainment= trailing behind the doggies & snapping away.



LOVE HER.




& a birthday celebration to round up the day.
see her cheerful smile (=

Chu Er.

to my boy's place..


steamboat.


the group of buddies~


house-hop. to liang's house.




doreen girl!

enjoy the new year!
before next yr gets worse. boo )=

Been busy!

once again, im lagging in entries. hah.

i have plenty and plenty of photos to edit and upload. and im procrastinating cause school's a big time-eater and the (dslr) files are all so large and time-consuming to handle. oops.

but i'll be updating real soon!
yes i will.

meanwhile, some random rants...

* i miss the kids at vietnam.
* i do not dislike school now
* im restricted to online shopping
* im deeply addicted to shooting & eating.
* i love my foodblog~

http://divinejoybites.blogspot.com


ostensibly smiling at times, but dark clouds less frequents.

Back to School~

yes i thought its high time i should update- bout SCHOOL.


dark or bright, its an uncertainty.

the first week of school had just swang by slowly, taking JC2 saints into the torturing midst of our first MSA exams. mine drags on all the way till thursday... and for goodness sake, resumes with H1 paper after the cny holidays. this is how i began my new year, what a life ):

beginning a school term for me as a JC3 JC2 repeat is definitely not something im awfully optimisstic about. just imagine barging into a cohort of stranger juniors, intruding into an already-bonded-and-most-probably-cliquish class, having to struggle with the Alevels syllabus and strenuous examination trials all over again, being made to report to college punctually every morning.... all these felt like threatening challenges to face.



mornings, i'll always have cass around to pei me~

well, everyone thinks that im on the upperhand being a JC3 who have already gone through the entire syllabus. BUT NO. never did i expect the school to reshuffle the topic sequences (to my disadvantage), and inserted additional information for this younger batch. in fact, im on the lowerhand, having to spend more efforts to catch up with them.

looking at their sturdily thick notes full of useful information only made my notes felt useless. completely useless.

During econs lecture on day 1, to my horror/terror, i realised that their set of market failure notes is 3x that of mine! and when the lecturer said "okay lets touch on government failure today..", i couldn't even find it within my set. thats not all, everything for every other subjects have been made further detailed, precise and concise. all of mine are merely the condensed versions!

i freaked out. like gosh, who knows how much i've missed out on.

and GOSH, how much do i have to catch up with them!
plus, im only told about the msa topics like 2 days before it began! damn.

so for now, i can't say much about my academic progress. i know i have to try, i will try, and im trying. trying REAL hard to get back on track. trying not to procrastinate and fall behind. this is my last and final year.

YES MAN, I HAVE TO DO IT.

physics lessons, i still have mr fong to churn laughters~
(he + his age-bluffing timeline)


On a even happier note, i'm happy with my new class!
08S23, to my delight & relieve. (about having a friendless year, hah)

5 4 girls + 13 guys.
melissa left us for aussie after day 2 ):


mel's last day- PE lesson + SAJC Open House 09.
14 Jan 2009.




elizabeth hannah mel elaine alynn. the initial 5.


of ruggers, councillors, tennis players, hockey players, debater
... and a cca-less ME. lol.




blowing balloons for debate.


it's only been two days, but i'll miss you mel!

& i'm so glad to have my baggie-partner!




HANNAH (:



im beginning to look on the brighter side.


hot/thirsty times, i have my slurpilicious papaya milkshake to tide over~


any time, i still have some afterschools to unwind...
& still be the kid in me (: (:

that's all-school-folks!
currently. i'm gonna mug, rush cny bakes, & continue stressing over the subjects. Till then!

OCS Navy Comms Ball

Sometime back, i attended dan's army commissioning ball.

the chance to reuse my prom dress, do up some curls...
and put on another round of scary makeup, hah =D

Before

ahh, check out my S$4.50 shades from saigon LOL!
shades are important to me on terrible-eyebag-days.


After


Club Chinois @ Orchard Parade Hotel



whoa okay, i felt the immense pressure the moment i stepped into the event area. there were many gorgeous girls around and their glowing charismas would simply hit you with demoralization. LOL. (in this case, the you is obviously me)
there was even an air-stewardess among them!


random group shot

we mingled around with his mates, keeping my self-consciousness at all times... until dinner came along and i forgot all about it. haha!





we watched a video compilation of their navy adventures, had some entertainment and magic performances at intervals, played an animal-sound guessing game... all as we indulged in the splendid dinner.

initially i was skeptical about the food (for such events), because of disappointed hopes i placed into the Fullerton Hotel dinner at SAJC Absolutsa. gosh, the food that night was a major disaster! bleah.


and ooh to my surprise, i actually cleared out 90% of my food here! particularly liked the oven-baked cod dish (: if dan was just a little slower-in-action, i would have stolen his over too. haha!


Lion Division


... the champion division!





it kinda felt like the guys' promnight. all the girls automatically became their date's personal photographers for the night, snapping away after the dinner.




one final shot.

what a rare experience for me! but it was really good exposure, like an early rehearsal for any future social gatherings haha. thank goodness his mates were all friendly people, and some super jokers too, so the atmosphere was far from being intense. enjoyed it! (:

& we dessert-suppered after that~

i never knew Balcony Bar served Nectarie's cakes!





apple crumble+icecream & a chocolatey-coconutty slice.
i fall for crumbles...and icecream...

thankyou boy for taking me there with you! (:

A New Year, A New Life

well, i came to full realisation about the unpredictability of life.

anything may strike at anytime, anyone may leave without a goodbye. we as humans can maintain a healthy lifestyle and happy life, but none of us have control over fate. to be precise, death.

i'm not encouraging pessimissism here, but just to imprint the importance of treasuring the present. appreciate your life, people around you, and the possessions you are blessed with. don't take anything for granted.

read "One Month to Live", and " An Hour to Live, An Hour to Love"... these are life-inspiring books that will change you to live more fulfillingly.

i teared while reading http://shandysim.blogspot.com/

illnesses are so freaky. they hit you at the most unexpected times, bring you through the most terrible processes, and at times, take you away with them.

merciless, and everyone is vulnerable to it.

i do hope i won't be a victim.
but you'll never know.

2008 has been tough. 2009 is still an uncertainty.
right now, all i can wish for is a bearable school year.
and for Alevels to swiftly swing past.

tell me it would.
i wouldn't be emoing so badly then.

Tis' the Season

to be jolly. fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

I am still trying to feel more jolly about the festive season first, before 12 Jan comes along... SCHOOL REOPENS. what a bummer ):

But i must say, this hols have been so fruitful/ eventful/ meaningful.
and there is so much to thank god about.

plenty of new friends from vietnam trip- the facilitators group, CJC ocip team, vietnamese volunteers, and the LOVELY ORPHANS!

greater exposure of my foodblog. apparently i'm now friends with a bunch of renowned food bloggers in singapore, who are such nice people (:
(in case you still do not know, i keep a food blog of reviews and personal food recounts. please visit http://divinejoybites.blogspot.com/ for more info. please do support and give comments there, haha)

consistently successful bakes, and more adventurous tryouts! i'm currently offering dessert tasting sessions for groups of people. started out with my sister's JC mates, and more to plan out. this is to offer testers of my bakes and promote for my future bakeshop: DIVINE ESSENTIALS. All earnings would go into funding my future Paris' dreams and the sch fees.

(unofficial bake-orders for any of my successful creations are currently negeotiable, just drop me an email at elaineng_121@hotmail.com to enquire)

this christmas, mum made an order of about 200 disney cookies as gifts for her colleagues and relatives>>>


complete with packaging and labelling.

lastly and most excitedly,
dad gave me a dslr!!!
it may not be the latest but i am uber contented with it.

CANON EOS 400d. love it to bits and pieces.
now you know why i have been click, click, clicking away~

Christmas, Christmas!
-what elaine's been up to-

Christmas Eve, 24 December 2008
Dessert Tasting Session for Sister's Party
(photos by dad's Canon EOS 50d)



3-tier stand...
Mini Fruit Tartlets w Vanilla Custard
Dark Chocolate Frosted Walnut Brownies
Raspberry Crumble Cake
Vanilla Panna Cotta w Rasperry Coulis




individual portions of Bailey's Tiramisu






eating, explaining, & feedback time.

I was on cloud nine that night, feeling so satisfied with the outcome and appreciation from them. Seeing people indulge happily into my creations is a huge sense of satisfaction, really! they were interested to place future orders too, yays (:

Christmas Day, 25 Dec 2008
Family Party @ my place



It was a night of fun and interaction with the relatives... everyone was present! The usual gift exchanging took place and this year, we had more out-of-the-ordinary gifts (haha!) to evoke laughter.


two chocolate logcakes i rushed out in the wee hours.
first attempt!





bringing out the platter for a 2nd time, heh.
raspberry crumble cake.

mini fruit tartlets.

disney butter cookies.

response was good (:





my loyal supporters, thankyou all so much!


the chap-a-lang potluck,lol.


surprise gift from the kids, super sweet of them..


awww..grandma look so cute!



we planned a few rounds of mass games too, which was utterly fun! ben offered me his wide angle lens so i could shoot, super cool! nothing beats bonding with a crowd of family members on christmas day (:

Boxing Day, 26 Dec 2008
Party @ Hector's- Potluck again!

Before that, the animal family Hog's Breath-ed at Vivocity...




the cow, the fish, the pig, the goat. Love them.

Then huiling and i made our way to Hector's place.


in process of making my Bailey's tiramisu..


FOOD x)
Notice the yellow-speckled ham? Oh man, i had sooo many pieces of it.. was cheese-stuffed and too thick to resist =D


playing indian poker


happy 17th birthday, georgina~


greedy-looking brandon & ian with their sundaes, haha!

more updates soon!
i've still yet to report about hokkaido & vietnam, hah. currently more active on facebook and extremely eager to keep divine joybites updated.

Merry christmas & a happy new year to all~