Slayedddd

I recently took on the biggest project ever (to me, that is).

T'was a crazy few weeks..

Had a couple late nights..

BUT I FINALLY CONQUERED IT! (After surviving the night on a half-hour power nap)

All you need to do when you get to the office is just.. tweak, get approval, export! Done!

Ah, it feels so good to be able to tell myself that while I sit here chilllllllin', typing this out on my MacBook that I've missed so dearly.

Nope, still not extremely fond of using a PC.

Y'know, as an intern I expected – and wanted – myself to get actual work to do but when I got this it was just.. massive. My initial cause of excitement in the office slowly became the bane of my existence, and it was a horrible experience because I felt extremely stressed out and disappointing people around me – those in the office, especially – isn't a fun thing to experience. I found that I wasn't able to think of any ideas, as if I had no inkling whatsoever of what creativity was in the first place.

I really miss my classmates, my groupmates especially because it is (and will always be) awesome being around them. I could go crazy whenever I wanted to and they would just join in or give me this siao ah you look and laugh it off. I miss being able to talk to Arynah and Steffi in our weirdass voices and them going "FLOOOORA, by GWIN".

Then again, as much as I would like for internship to end ASAP, I find myself getting more and more attached to my colleagues.

Turns out they're more fun a bunch than I thought they'd be, especially Jane cuz she's like the older sister I never had, always giving me encouragement and advice whenever she could tell that I was facing difficulties at work and would keep it to myself. When I first met her I thought I would never get to know her due to the fact I always had lunch with the dudes, but she joined us once and now we're the girl lunch group because y'know, girls enjoy taking more time to eat and to catch up/share stories over a meal.

It's amazing how when we discovered we had a chance of attending a local u thanks to NTU ADM, the three of us (plus Joranna, another intern who's coincidentally from SP DMIT, up the hill with DMC) immediately sat down and spent extra time in the office (after 6pm and not infront of our bosses, of course) discussing how we should go about doing the drawings, organizing our portfolio and all.

It's so scary and yet all so amazing at the same time. It's like I've been so lost the past half a year due to my bad grades. There wasn't a chance someone with my GPA was going to NTU Wee Kim Wee, and even lesser chance of me attending uni in NUS FASS for CNM. And these were the only places I ever intended to try out for especially WKW because which mass/media comm student doesn't know of WKW and how awesome it is tn?

Of course I'm still gonna try to appeal for WKW cuz it's definitely my dream course in uni.

It's amazing how I'm in the best class in DMC (yes DMC/FT/3B/01, as assistant class rep I'm really proud of our class) but I didn't do that well till I kinda woke up and realised how stupid I was in Year 1.

Everyone thinks that I'm kidding when I say my GPA's low. "Don't lie la, your version of low is like actually damn high right? Your class so zai!" sighhhh y'all thought wrong.

But yes, if anything I'm rather grateful I could at least attend NTU if I worked hard on the drawings and portfolio to submit! The thought of putting together a portfolio (my online one doesn't count) is like whoop whoop exciting!

Speaking of grateful, I realised how fortunate I am to be where I am really.

It's as if after all my angst from my project cleared up, I could sit down and just relax and think about what's been going on the past few days/week.

I have beautiful friends who are always there for me and who would take the initiative to offer me help when they felt I was struggling (thanks Ah Joey Tan for cooking dinner and the night of chillin'), friends who would text me to ask how I'm doing and holding up with everything..

I guess just when you think life's throwing – not giving – lemons at you, you find that you can actually take a freaking massive blender to like blend it all up instead of painfully juicing those lemons one by one.

.....ok wut.

Moving on!

My family too. You know you're blessed with an awesome family when your brother walks out of his room in the middle of the night, sees you falling asleep all over the table while you're working and offers to go get you coffee from the nearby Giant supermarket even though it's really late. And when you offer to walk with him he tells you to stay home cuz "You've got work to do, no worries I'll handle it."

It's like.. yeah, I suddenly see everything clearly.. everything that I've been taking for granted due to my stupidity.

A little positivity goes a long way, but a little negativity goes even further than that – not in the good way.

As much as I feel regretful of my behaviour and what I've said/done while angsty..

Well, all I have with and in me are time, a little hope and the confidence that I'll be able to make everything right in time to come.

Time to get ready for work!

Joranna told me she'd treat me to Starbucks cuz she knows how I've been feeling the past few weeks.. :') what did I do to deserve such awesome colleagues whom would hopefully end up being my classmates/schoolmates?

Tick, Check!

Hi there!

Sorry for the lack of photos, ever since I brought Cammie baby (er, my DSLR) to Nepal and brought it back with a hairline crack in the lens, I haven't been able to take decent shots without having to go through the tedious process of photoshopping it away.

Thing is, I'm extremely OCD about stuff like that, and the whole cycle of shoot-edit-not good-edit again is really time consuming and right now what I don't have is the luxury of time.

I need to get a new camera, doubt I'll have enough money to get a Canon DSLR as I initially intended to due to the fact I'll be traveling to Korea for a week (grad trip woohoo!) and then Japan with the boyfriend after.. but if anyone has suggestions on good compact cameras that are somewhat DSLR quality, do let me know!

I've done a few things to tick off my bucket list/list of things to do!

☑ Watch a football match with friend(s) in our respective team jerseys:

If you did notice, I was wearing the jersey from the 09/10 home kit that my uncle bought for me as a "continue your hard work for 'O' Levels!" gift. It's my favourite Arsenal jersey, but I can't wear it out.

And yes if you were wondering, it has Nasri's number and name on it, which explains why I can't wear it out. Oh just some of the things I regret doing the most...

Getting his name and number on my favourite Arsenal jersey would be one of the stupidest mistakes of my life that would sadly stick with me till the day I die.

☑ Get a new phone

I finally got a new phone!

My dad's finally back in Singapore (he works overseas and comes home from time to time), and therefore I had the chance to change my phone which I desperately needed to do.

It's not that I'm spoilt and feel the need to get new stuff, but I've been using my iPhone 4 for almost 3-4 years and it's dying this really tragic, slow death in the form of extreme lag and shutting down applications as and when it deems fit. 

Can't really make calls out without people on the other end going, "Hello? Hello? Sorry are you still there cuz your voice is really muffled! HELLO?!" with their voices increasing in volume.

Since there was only stock for the space grey in 32GB, I decided (dejectedly) that I should just settle for it and convince myself it's my fate since I'm impatient and couldn't be bothered to wait anymore.

My parents were traveling to Genting for the weekend, so we rushed down to the nearest outlet located at Causeway Point which had stock for the 5S in space grey.

When we got there and saw the display model for the iPhone 5S Silver, I think my mom saw how sad and disappointed I was since I had to settle for black (and I really loved the gold one). 

Yeah I'll admit that whenever I'm disappointed, I can't hide it at all. It's just really obvious and the words "DISAPPOINTED, THIS GIRL IS" is written all over my forehead.

She went over to the counter and asked if they had any stock for any white iPhone models, in which the guy serving us replied, "Oh yeah I think we have one last one left for silver..... let me check." and I was like "Oh God there's one left? If it's silver I'll take it still!"

He came back giving this look, which made me feel like I should just give up and that the subtle puppy eyes look I was going for was failing me tragically.

"Hi erm yeah we have one last model.. for the gold one. Are you okay with that?"

HELL YES I TOTALLY AM.

I was so happy I hugged my mom and kissed her on the cheek, which I haven't done for a while and I guess she was a little taken aback since I seldom hug my parents.

After the signing of a few documents and the typical procedure of checking for scratches (I couldn't be bothered really, since it was the last model I just wanted it, scratches or not)...

..hello my beautiful iPhone 5S, and welcome to the family!

Pretty 5S box placed beside my old iPhone 4 boxes (yes, I had 2 of the same model cuz back in Year 1 it either got stolen or that I misplaced it and only realised hours later, felt really bad cuz my parents had to get me a new one a couple of months later even though it was my fault) for comparison. Look at that beauty!

Here's a selfie taken with my new phone because yeah most girls can't resist testing out the cameras on their new phones by taking numerous selfies:

I love how filters automatically clears out a lot of my acne scars, which are still visible on my chin.

The day my skin becomes that clear would be the happiest day of my life because I've had bad skin since I first broke out in pri 5 :( a few friends I've known since young have told me that it's getting better though and that my scars are only around my nose, chin and under my cheekbones now! YAY.

Ironically, it got better after I stopped dumping products all over my face. Before this I used like 5 different products before sleeping and they all made my acne/scars worse.

Don't learn from me though, everyone's skin reacts differently to different things.

Hope y'all have a good week ahead, and happy Sunday!

(Talk about abrupt endings.)

Hello Halloween + Internship Blues

Taking a moment from work to take a breather and to blog from my iPhone (whoa how long has it been since I last blogged from my iPhone — or at all?)

I started internship on 14th October and I will admit that I'm worn out/feeling the effects after just 2 weeks. I'm not terribly fond of working in an office environment and now that I'm in one I'm just thinking of what I could do in future that doesn't involve me being in a 9-5 office environment. It's just downright suffocating.

My colleagues are really fun though so no qualms about them.

Plus I don't have to bring work home as "homework"! Major plus point. Once I'm done for the day in the office I really am done. And there I was thinking how horrible it'll be if I started internship and had to come home to work even more (as observed from my mom who's also in the industry but she's an AE, short for accounts executive).

I'm starting to screw up though, which I'm really disappointed about because I'm such a perfectionist? Especially in things that I know I'm good in. I don't just screw up because I don't allow myself to?

I don't get how I'm able to screw up 2 times in two weeks.... just doesn't make sense to me.

And now I know how one small mistake could make one feel so bitter. When my colleague came over and told me how I am "lucky in a sense" because the client is leaving Singapore and would therefore just "pay us as per normal" despite there being errors in the video I've edited (minor ones), my mood for the day just totally fell.

I guess I feel terribly disappointed cuz I'm pretty sure I double — heck I think it's more than double — checked my edits before exporting it. I don't get how I could've been so careless.

Now I just feel like shit and all I wanna do is go home and rot away because when he initially told me the news I just wanted to cry right there and then because I felt so guilty and disappointed in myself.. but oh well. Lesson learnt: Double-checking is not enough; TRIPLE CHECK!

Then again, if there's one thing I can be proud about, it's the fact that I attended Halloween events for the first time in my life this week!

Went for the ones at *SCAPE and NLB (which I later found out was organized by my dance junior for her FYP) with ze bf, Jack and Dyl.

Had a lot of fun with my bros as usual!

I get super vulgar when I'm scared, so I'm pretty sure that was the most vulgar my boyfriend has ever seen me.

The events were good, but it was pretty late by the time we got to the one at NLB and I was sleepy to the point that nothing really scared me and I started to find everything funny rather than scary. Still haven't gotten over my fear of people in costumes :( I've always hated night walks or anything close, and I would come out of them crying or I would be stuck inside because I'm so scared I can't move.

The *SCAPE one scared me shitless!!! Paid $17 to get scared.

Spent half the time cursing or grabbing onto Russell and hiding behind him hurhur if a "ghost" or whatever appeared to my left I would immediately siam to his right to hide beside him hehe I love my personal human shield (who actually brought bandages along just incase I accidentally tore a limb off him). Think the guys had to like push me to move a few times because I was so scared my walking speed became -9000 and I slowed my group down so much that the couple behind us caught up! Embarrassing much :s

Hopefully next year I'd have more guts (and money) to go for the major Halloween events like USS and Sentosa!

ComCrop and Gym Fun!

Had such a fun Saturday!

Started off my morning feeling really unwell. My stomach has been horrible recently so I guess I should watch my food intake. Been considering taking a food intolerance/allergy test to see which foods I react negatively to because I'm quite sick of getting so bloated all the time, it's super uncomfortable.

Decided not to let my stomach get the better of me, so I got myself up and out early in the morning to head down to *Scape

Nope, not for dance, but to do CIP for comcrop with Team Nepal 5!

(Missing Herman and Wisely, who went for some army talk, Zuan and Atikah, who went to work and my AMK bruddah Yeeyuan)

Apart from the crazy heat we had to endure from 10am-2pm (most of us got really obvious tanlines, especially watch and glove ones), I thought it was pretty fun. Unlike my dad, I'm not one with a green thumb though.

It's crazy hard work – I got cut a few times by those plastic things you see infront of us in the photo.

After our debrief, we went to grab dessert at Honeymoon Dessert @ 313. Finally!

I love my crazy Nepal 5ers (fivers), especially my group of food buddies. We started out total strangers but now most of us have forged this bond.. it's crazy.

To digress a bit, we had Indian food @ Komalas last week and I'm having this mad craving for the cottage cheese curry that Aryanh ordered!

The rest of our food was disappointing, especially since I had briyani that was a lot better at Changi Airport's T3 Kopitiam (dad and I used to have that at work pretty often because it was so good).

Then again Arynah's delicious curry and the amazing company made up for the food that was so-so.

Getting back to Saturday, I accompanied Arynah to get her ukulele at Peninsula Shopping Centre after and nope, I didn't get mine which I'm kinda bummed out about cuz I don't have the excess cash to splurge on something like that :(

Saw this guy testing out the guitars before making his purchase and he was so good. Then he started playing Hotel California! *_*

I'm planning on restringing my guitar and learning it again. Either that or getting a ukulele since Alvin taught me some basic stuff (duuuude you were supposed to help me restring my guitar!) while we were in Nepal and I really enjoyed playing the ukulele even though my hands are kinda big for it.

Arynah kept laughing when she asked me to strum a chord or two while we tested the ukuleles and she said it was damn funny watching my hands bend uncomfortably because it was way bigger than the neck of the ukulele!

Oh well, can't wait for Alvin to teach me how to play the guitar again!

Headed back to meet the bros for dinner and ice-cream from AMK Hub for dessert. Yay to free pizzas! All we had to pay for was the sides that we ordered hehehe I mean who doesn't like (free) pizza!?

I love my sailing bros so much and I'm so thankful we got a lot closer after one random gathering! My sailing family will always be my first-second family :)


Sunday saw me waking up early for a gym session at Gymm Boxx XL with Cass and Jack!

So proud of Cass for pushing herself today! And thanks Jack for all the advice while we were there!

Gymm Boxx XL recently opened at the 4th floor of Bishan CC and it's soooo nice! Even the toilet's nice, which explained why Cass and I decided to camwhore in there hehe. Mandatory after-gym shot (and no I didn't gym in denim shorts, I just changed out after our session)!

Signed up for Zumba classes with Shanai at Bishan CC last week too – it's gonna be one crazy month rushing down from my office to class but it'll be worth it!

2007 (2004 for Shanai) till now :*

I've to work on strengthening my legs, which would in turn help my knee problem. My knees have been affecting me a lot the past few days and I can't walk without feeling pain in my right knee especially if I run or climb stairs.

It's really sickening because if I go out for a whole day my knees start to hurt so bad and it just affects my overall mood, but oh well :(

I'm now trying to eat as clean as possible, and to make better choices when I'm eating out!

Gonna go experiment on overnight oats now so toooooodleloooooooo!

Back

Hi guys!

Just a little update to say that I'm back to the land of the WiFi, clean toilets, proper roads, air and light pollution.

Nepal has been awesome, but more on that later.

Right now I'm off for a good swim (burning off calories before I consume the pizza my mom decided to order)!

To R,

Thank you for the past 3 months.

This is a scheduled post that I typed out before leaving for Nepal, but just know that right now I probably am missing you terribly (and maybe freezing my butt off too).

It's not like me to wish you a happy monthsary or something (we agreed that it was really silly and truthfully speaking, quite redundant), but 2 weeks without proper updates and communication's really hard – not only for you but me too really, and this is the first time we're having to do this as a couple.

Major dun dun dunnnn.

Being with you has been nothing but amazing, and I think that to myself on the 15th of every month.

You make me feel so loved, special and beautiful all the time – you don't wait till things like an anniversary or whatever to do that, and I really am thankful I'm with someone who loves me just as much as I love him. Sometimes I really don't know what I did to deserve you.

And oh, thanks for taking it all in whenever I get frustrated at you here and there. I'm pretty sure if it were someone else he would've dumped me.. literally. Like slapping me senseless, throwing me to the ground etc.

I'm typing this on Sept 8, so I'm pretty sure I'll miss you a whole lot once I'm in Nepal.

Hope you liked the gift! :*

I'll see you real soon – one week down, one week to go!

With lots of love,

Your lazy python Gwen

Tanjong Pagar Cafe Hunt + Cake Spade

So I met Geisel at Tanjong Pagar with the intention of finding a cafe to have dinner and desserts.

She Whatsapped me a whole list of cafes on her to-go list! Though after I narrowed it down to Arbite and Artistry, we realised that Artistry closes at 7pm, and for some reason we decided to skip Arbite and just try our luck at Tanjong Pagar Road.

Okay fine, we both wanted to get cakes at Cake Spade (love the name), which she recommended. Since we are both dessert people...... PROPER FOOD > DESSERTS ANY TIME.

Ge: "Or should we just get cakes first then we go eat the lor mee?"

Gw: "Omg best idea ever. Let's go!"

Yup, because having your dessert after your main meal is way too mainstream.

And so began our little cafe hunt.

There were so many Korean BBQ restaurants around, I swear!

It's like down the whole stretch all we encountered were pub, pub, Korean BBQ, pub, cafe, Korean BBQ, Korean norebang (karaoke), Korean BBQ, drunk Korean people, Asian dessert cafe, more drunk Korean people, pub, Korean pub, pub, pub, Korean BBQ.

And. There. Were. MORE.

We were so tempted to have Korean food instead of trying to find a nice cosy cafe to have our dinner at!

I was sweaty by the time we got to Cake Spade cuz we walked up and down Tanjong Pagar Road AND the Duxton Area. Thank goodness we got seats inside!

What we had: 

Dark chocolate banana cake, Cupcake of the Day (Chocolate Peanut Butter) and strawberry tofu cheesecake.

The drink we ordered, as recommended by the guy working there! 

(Thanks for being so nice! Made us feel totally comfortable dining there)

Look at her happily opening it..

We kinda judged the drink because it had ginseng in it, and I – accidentally – proclaimed out loud "OMG EW NO IT HAS GINGER!" when the dude overheard us talking about which drink seemed nicer.

Thoughts, stay in my head will you????

All the drinks were stored in really pretty bottles omg it was like prettybottlegasm.

Felt so good chilling with her talking about everything – especially dance stuff because that's what dancers do best at any gathering with dancers – and reminiscing the past. All the things we did as Year 1 dancers with our ABCDEFG clique.. boy do I miss them big time! Especially my bros, like Zhicong :(

More than half of ABCD left SDZ, sigh. But then again it's a good thing cuz through that my batch wasn't two seperate cliques anymore as we started to mingle with the others that weren't in ABCD.

I'm so out of touch with anything dance and anything SDZ, and it kinda sucks.

And we were done!

(Don't worry, even though we couldn't finish the cupcake, I polished off the Kit Kat at least. THEN I entered a chocolate coma. It's been a while since I had too much chocolate really. I mean, how does one have too much chocolate? *inserts impossibru face*)

Lesson learnt: If you're getting a slice of dark chocolate cake, forgo the chocolate + PB cupcake.

..actually I always forget this lesson once I get desserts again. Who's up for a scoop of dark chocolate ice-cream paired with a scoop of hazelnut chocolate ice-cream?!!!

She then brought me to have some lor mee at one of her favourite places whichnameIdidnotnotedown.

Oh don't worry about me and the fact that my stomach was totally bursting (I thought I was pregnant for a good 10 minutes). Another huge bowl of lor mee totally wouldn't hurt.

Before we ordered, she asked, "Have you ever had white lor mee?"

.....white lor mee?

"Nope I've only ever had black ones."

I prefer them black, you see. *raises eyebrows* Hurhur.

She wasn't kidding when she said it was the best lor mee cuz it was so good! Major plus points cuz it had loads of veggies and seafood, both my ultimate favourites!

Need to go back again hehe it was really, REALLY good. And when I rave about a certain foodstuff you know it's good since I seldom do.

We also ordered a plate of fried sotong with salted egg.

Was initially against the idea cuz the first time I had something with salted egg, it was SO BAD and it totally weaned me off anything salted egg. Thank goodness we tried this though!

We couldn't finish everything, sadly, and she packed back half the plate of sotong.

She got me these from BKK! Yay thank you babe!

Before Geisel passed me these at Cake Spade, she asked me what my horoscope was. When she got my answer ("Eh? I'm an Aries. Why leh?"), she whipped these out of her bag and gave me this expression that said PHEW!, which was quite funny. Then I understood why she was so relieved after I opened the bag.

Wore my new Aries bracelet immediately hehe. I'm a proud Aries.

So yes, new armcandy and a small pack of chocolates, because you do not gift Gwen something unless it includes chocolate. I didn't set this rule but somehow everyone who ever got me proper gifts seem to presume/understand that? My boyfriend even! 

Then again I suppose it's not that hard to figure what my absolute favourite foodstuff in the world is.

Discussed Waves 18 auditions and her and decided that no matter how reluctant I was about it, I know I would regret it big time when I sit there watching everyone during vettings and trainings.

So yeah, guess I'll be a part of Waves 18, but maybe not the bboy items due to the fact that my knees are super weak now, doubt they could take 2 months of bboy AND hip hop training.

Hope I score a girls' hip hop item this year. My favourite genre and I only did that for one item as a Year 1 during Waves 16 :(

If you can't bake them, shoot them

So I took my baby Cammie (my DSLR) out to play recently cuz I bought macarons from Canelé, my favourite place! Also where my bestfriends brought me for my birthday treat.

I love the macarons there! It's where I bought my first macaron from with Geisel hehe.

I need to stop my macaron craze!!!!!

Their packaging changed a lil. Now the macarons come encased in this plastic holder. Guess it's to prevent the macarons from knocking into each other when the customer carries the box around?

Haven't actual sat down to scrutinize photos and edit them using Photoshop.. felt kinda good to be doing that again cuz that's how I spent most of my free time during my gap year.

So I've also been sick for the longest time and it's annoying me to no end!

Had to skip my Nepal OCIP trip meeting today because I felt so horrible, especially after having a bit of my breakfast. Sigh me no likey because I haven't really stopped coughing since the haze period? It got better for a bit, but it's a lot worse now.

Doesn't help that I hate taking meds and never take them on time (or at all) just because. My mom sometimes has to force feed me my meds and I can sense how annoyed she is whenever she has to do that hehe.

Knees have been really bad too, hurts to lie in bed even because my knees ache and burn so badly that I try to find a position to lie in that doesn't hurt them.

Wish I could replace my knees with a snap of my fingers. :'(

I've decided that I'll go back for physiotherapy after I'm done with my internships! Wouldn't wanna attend uni (if possible) with knees like that, would be restricted from doing so much, especially dance! For now I'll just stick with achy knees and treatments at those TCM places.

My schedule for this week and the next is gonna kill me: Intensive Nepal trip meetings everyday before the 7th, and yours truly has to plan team bonding activities for us to do.

For some reason I'm always doing team bonding! For camps, for orientations.. I think I'm getting really good at planning them.

Looking forward to my 15 days in Nepal!

Ending off with a photo of a really demure-looking me headed for #DMCraya a few days back. Too many photos to save and edit here and there, so I guess I'll post them up some other time.

Bye!

Random Quiz Feels

Hi, it's 3:47AM and I have to get up for work in 5 hours time cuz I'm meeting Mel to go look at shoes before we start our shift at 12PM.

So here I am, listening to some songs while doing my FYP reflections due Friday (noooo, Ms Laura's gonna collect our Agency access cards too sigh. 10018, I'll miss you) and I noticed that people were doing this '20 facts' thing on Instagram.

I searched for "quiz" on my blog's posts search bar and decided to do a random quiz to compare my then and now since well, I am bored.

Got this quiz from this post dated back to November 10, 2006.

It's been 7 years.. I wonder how much my answers would differ.

Okay here goes!


full name: Gwendolyn Neo Yuan Qi
nicknames: Gwen, Gee, Geebee, Gwean, Gwendy, Gwennie, Gwendolean, Gwendonai, Mama, Mom, Gwen Stefani, Gwenno, Gwendo, Gwen Gwen, Ah Neo.. I have a whole list from my poly friends but I can't seem to recall them now.
gender: Female
age: 20
b-day: 8th April
star sign: Aries
place of birth: Thomson Medical Hospital, Singapore
height: 165CM (last measured)
eye color: Dark brown
hair color: Dark brown with awful dark roots
skin color: Tanned
any piercings: One on each ear
where: Refer to answer above
do you want more: Nope, I'm good.
do you wear glasses: Only when I need to
do you have braces: Was supposed to get them in sec 4, still am contemplating this.
what color are your nails: Haven't painted them in months. They b bare.

mom's name: June
dad's name: Hock Choon
any brothers or sisters: One younger brother
how old: 16
who do you live with: Family
are your parents married: Yup
do you have any pets: Fishes and hamsters all passed on
where do you live: Singapore

what school do you go to: Singapore Polytechnic
what grade: Year 3, graduating in a semester
favourite subject: English and Literature
favourite teacher: Ms Esther and Ms Pam Fang
worst subject: Math and Econs
is your school public or private: Public
would you ever go to a private school: No?
do you like football: Love watching and playing. Arsenal baby!
do you like baseball: Still no
do you like basketball: How did I say yes in the past, no I dislike it
do you like dance: Too much for my own good. Get Down! Vol. 6 is coming up in Sept, definitely competing again. Here's to hoping I can get past Top 16 this time :)
do you like badminton: Still do
do you like volleyball: Still do!
do you like golf: Still don't
do you have a boyfriend: Yeah, am happily attached :)
if so, name: Russell
how old is he: My age
are you single: This makes no sense since the answer's above
are you straight/gay/bi: Straight

what is your ideal hair color for a boyfriend/girlfriend: Black/brown
eye color: Black/brown
skin color: Tanned I suppose?
height: Taller than me! (It just occured to me that I've been subconciously describing my boyfriend over the past few questions HAHAHA)
personality: Plain awesome
style: Whatever goes
does size matter: Still kinda does
are you happy: Yeah but I have my moments
sad: Like I said, moments.
funny: Typical class clown. I lean more to the lame side of life now hurhur
boring: I noticed it's becoming more so as I age, oh dear.
popular: My boyfriend claims I am but nah
happy-go-lucky: Let bygones be bygones
serious: Only when need be
chilled: Super
stressed: Not at the moment but I stress pretty easily
smart: Dumb asian
dumb: Answer above
shy: Initially, but after I warm up to others I'm just.... plain crazy
outgoing: Super
loud: Sadly, yes sigh I need to tone down
quiet: More so. Comes packaged with aging I suppose
annoying: Sorry everyone
nice: Subjective, but I try to be to everyone
kind: Yeah
friendly: Suppose so
nasty: Subjective once again
evil: No
fashionable: After 2 years of dressing up and wearing makeup to school? I'm sorry but I'd like to spend most of my final year in my Vans, shorts and a basic/comfortable but stylish top.
pretty: No
ugly: Yes
have you ever smoked: Nope
have you ever done drugs?: Nope I may be a dumb Asian but drugs are still stupid
have you ever drank alcohol?: Too much too often heheh
have you ever had sex?: Nope
have you ever been abroad?: Yup and yearning a getaway right now.
do you have any scars?: Loaded with them. My body is a battlefield
have you ever killed someone?: Oh wow this question's terribly intellectual
have you ever kicked someone in the nuts: Think I accidentally kneed someone's nuts before
have you ever been arrested?: Nope
have you ever got in a fight?: Technically yes. Almost punched the person and vice versa but my teammates stopped us
have you ever stolen something?: Nope
have you ever given birth?: Nope
have you ever been fired?: Nope, too awesome an employee to be fired.
have you ever passed out?: Yeah and it felt horrible
have you ever peed in your pants?: As a kid
if so, why?: Kids can't control their urges to wee

Gwen Bakes: (Failed) Macarons

So I wrote a blog post about how I had this bucket list to clear.

It has been a while since I last sat down and wrote a proper blog post with proper photos from my baby Cammie (my beloved Sony DSLR which I am contemplating selling so that I can upgrade – more on that another time), and I decided that why not start my old blogging habit again by documenting my baking adventures?

(Don't expect high quality photos though, I'm still just getting into the mood of using Cammie again + photo editing.)

I've always had a strong interest in baking, and I seldom admit this but one of my dreams is also to open a bakery or a cafe that people would love sitting in all day.

Dad and I have even had long, serious discussions about this due to my mom being so awesome in cooking. We thought we could work something out in future due to how Singaporeans are taking a huge liking to the cafes springing up around here.

Today I (unsuccessfully) cleared the one on the top of my list: The macaron *cue dramatic background music*

Dun dun dunnnn!

I doubt anyone remembers, but I've ever mentioned how macarons are my absolute favourite things on Earth. They make me so happy!

Albeit it was a failure (photo at the end of the post, I'm keeping y'all in suspense. DON'T SCROLL DOWN TO SPOIL YOURSELF! I'm not using reverse psychology here and oh the recipe link's below too), I figured it could be considered a success if you change the recipe title to something like....... 'Meringue Cookies' or something?

I kid you not; this motherbitch is extremely testing on your patience so be warned if you ever feel ambitious (or bored) enough to try baking something that shops in town are selling at $2.50-$5 per piece!??

With countertop cleared and my army of baking utensils at the ready!

Sifting the icing sugar + almond meal + cocoa powder + salt took up bulk of the time, which surprised me a lil' cuz I expected myself to spend more time whipping the egg whites into a meringue instead.

In the end half my almond meal was left behind due to it being too big to sift through! Madness. Almond meal isn't cheap in Singapore either, so oh well.

My mom took the first failure so well.

"Aiyah nevermind la, your first time also what. Nevermind lor."

Do not overwhip the egg whites, and always ensure that you allow your egg whites are at room temperature, which is an essential for those stiff peaks.

I have no idea how long I did this for, but I normally follow my gut feeling when it comes to whipping egg whites.

My gut feeling was SO WRONG when it came to the folding in of the dry mixture into the egg whites though.

This was where it all went terribly downhill (and I expected it due to all the research I've done before baking this badass).

I over mixed the batter, and I mistook 'slow running lava' as runny.

No idea how that happened.. it just did!

Was so frustrated that I was this close to throwing out my ruined batter. THIS CLOSE. Then I felt bad because that would be about 3 cups of icing sugar I'd be pouring down the drain – and did I mention how expensive almond meal is?

Even piping them was tough due to the batter being soooooooooo runny.

Decided that YOLO! "Just whack only! Fail already what."

(Whoopsie, photograph from my Instagram)

The counter was a total mess.. as was I.

The final product?:

ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS – but deliciously, sickly sweet – COOKIES MUAHAHAH

The batter made so much though – not just the ones you see in the picture!

Due to the over mixed and terribly runny batter, they wouldn't rise upwards no matter how long I made them sit out (essential for your macarons to rise UP and not OUT).

And if you were wondering, duh they didn't grow 'feet' either. Not like I expected them to, the failed batter was sign #1 that the feet weren't gonna happen, not today.

They do, however, taste really good!

Not something I would consume a lot of at one go though, the amount of sugar plus the fact that my stomach hasn't been too good to me due to my eating habits the past few months. But hey I'm back to trying my best at eating clean and working out daily!

These should be called meringue cookies instead HAHAHA. What a way to cover up my fail!

I'm gonna have another go at baking them really soon, when I'm not as tired or in a rush to get them done. These babies are pricey for a reason, and they are prolly the world's toughest cookie to bake! The mixing etc. alone took me almost 2 hours due to the sifting.

Oh well, shall stuff these in my brother's mouth for the time being. And my boyfriend's, that is, if they last till I see him but urgh these are the equivalent to diabetes in TWO BITES, which is why I'm pretty sure my brother would enjoy them.

Okay fine, diabetes in four bites.

(I had more than 10 bites for sure)

(Shit.)

You can get the recipe here @ CHOW. 

I normally tweak recipes especially if I've baked them a couple of times but since this is my first time trying this recipe I've yet to change it. The measurements aren't in metric form too so it's best to Google for a metric conversion chart – take note the different measurements for different kinds of things!

Spontaneous Fat Boys + Spontaneous Friday

So I've decided that it's time to return to the sea!

(By wakeboarding again, duh.)

It's amazing what you find yourself doing when you've too much time. It suddenly hit me that I desperately wanted to do any watersport again (that allows you to gauge my level of desperation) and I found myself texting Joshua Fong about renting a boat.

$130/hr's totally expensive, and sadly that's the norm, so we're considering returning to SPWB (SP Wakeboarding). Both of us are Year 3s though, and we've not gone back for trainings since a month or two after camp. It'll be a bit thick-skinned if we do, huh?


Anywho, I love spontaneous plans.

The past two days have been nothing but.

A spontaneous plan on Thursday saw me at Fat Boys with Mel for dinner.

I don't like beer, but I love Hoegaarden.

I ordered a pint, and it's a pity I always can't finish my beer because my stomach isn't the exact definition of strong. By the time I was halfway through, my stomach started to hurt because it got so bloated from both dinner + beer.

It felt really good to catch up with Mel!

Ever since I got busy with dance and FYP, I couldn't really dig out the time to meet her. The last time I saw her was during Chinese New Year? When I came out of the lift at my side of the block (we stay at the same block), we stared at each other and laughed at the realisation that we've not seen each other for a good 7 months or so.


A spontaneous plan on Friday saw me and my girlies rushing around the City Hall area in search of the all-amazing llaollao.

llaollao is this amazing froyo shop and their froyo looks like this:

Hehe it looks so good I wish I could have some nowwww!

I absolutely love froyo. If I had a choice to eat froyo or a proper meal, I'd pick froyo FO' SHO.

By the time we found it – the one and only llaollao outlet in Singapore – at Marina Square, it was almost 8 and we had to rush cos I was meeting Russell for dinner. Sica and I both bought brownies for our busy army boyfriends (hehe thoughtfulgirlfriends93&94) and she had to head home to put her crowbar stuff down before meeting Zuofeng for supper.

I won't deny – it's really good. Steffi has been bringing and recommending people to go to llaollao and it just so happened that we had a 1-for-1 coupon, so 2 huge cups cost us $5.60 which is MAD CHEAP. Treat from Steffi though! Must find the time to return her the treat.

We still found it hard to finish everything even though the three of us were sharing two cups. I ended up too full for dinner (I ate anyways).

Went for a jog with him and a friend after. (Actually it was me who shamelessly requested to tag along hehe. See, another spontaneous thing that occurred today!)

My knees are feeling the aftermath of the jog though. The burn and ache feels horrible now, but I'm used to it. It happened the last time I promised myself that it'd be 'just a jog' too because I ended up running and doing sprint/jog intervals.

I can't help it! I love running, ESPECIALLY sprinting. My dad always told me as he watched me win my inter-house events, "You take after daddy ah! Winning all the sprinting events.. I always did the short-distance ones too and always won them. 100m, 200m.. oh baton relays like yours also. You're really taking after me!"

It starts with me telling myself, "Oh since I'm already here why not just run for a bit?" which usually sees me running the whole distance.

The first time that happened I limped home and walked funny because my knees were crazy weak. My physiotherapist could only shake his head when I complained of my *cough* ordeal.

I REGRET NOTHING.

I absolutely abhor the fact that I have knees like that.

I didn't ask for it, and it's denying me of the things I've always loved doing.

Oh, to completely digress and to end this post off (because it's 5:20AM and my brain can't seem to link my thoughts properly)..........

......I found this picture on Twitter.

I am sick of allowing people's thoughts about my body control me, my eating habits and my mood.

Need more motivation. I can do this!

Terribly thankful for the people around me who make me feel so much better.

Guess that's especially applicable for my boyfriend cuz he's just the sweetest person ever, always saying nice stuff about me and how I look regardless of how I put myself down. He has no idea (yah after reading this he most certainly will) but he always makes my day really.

The past 2 months have been nothing but amazing.

So yes, thank you for being such an awesome possum person :)


p.s. I'm sorry again this is random the gamer girl in me is totally showing right about now but THE NEW TRAILER FOR WoW'S LATEST MISTS OF PANDARIA PATCH: SIEGE OF ORGRIMMAR IS OUT AND IT LOOKS LIKE MAJOR AWESOMESAUCE I MEAN LOOK IT'S SO AWESOME I'M TYPING IN CAPS AND I USED THE WORD 'AWESOMESAUCE' OMG OK BYE

For anyone who plays WoW (and loves it):


I was never about the Horde, though I do understand it's best to play both sides to understand the full story behind the Alliance-Horde War.

FOR THE ALLIANCE!