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!

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!

Rise @ MBS

So my relatives and I had a buffet lunch at Rise Restaurant located in Marina Bay Sands.

Heard from my mom later on that it was a birthday lunch to celebrate my grandaunt's birthday!

Can't tell you how terribly blessed I am to have such doting and understanding relatives and family members whom I treasure a lot, even if I don't show it much. My mom tells me stuff here and there (mainly things like my relatives asking about me, so on so forth) and it really warms my heart to know that no matter what, I'll have my family and their support.

Mom and pops.

(And loads of food infront of them)

The desert section!

Apparently I was so engrossed in the main dishes that I didn't bother taking photos of it. Only bothered to take photos of the desert heehee *glutton 4 lyfe*

So much I didn't try due to the fact that I was already full from eating all the meat, fish, etc. Looking back at this photo makes me think of what a pity it was because I absolutely LOVE anything chocolate and there were plenty of chocolatey stuff there.

Mmm chocolate fondue! I LOVE

What is a buffet without chocolate fondue? ;)

Glutton of a brother whose body doesn't show it.

When I took all these back, my mom was telling my grandaunt,

"Aiyoh look at her plate! Quite nice ah the way she puts everything but EVERYTHING IS CHOCOLATE. She LOVES chocolate."

A photo of the bro tucking in to the best desert (the one with the bright red raspberry on top). Would definitely go back to the restaurant just for this desert because that's how good it was!

Such a glutton for chocolate.

OM NOM NOM

Then it started pouring without warning!

Poor staff had to scramble to move tables and chairs away because the rainwater started coming in through this opening that was meant to make way for the structure of the building.

Crazy weather we got here.

She tried to catch the rainwater with her mouth as if they were snowflakes!

Was cute but I had to tell her not to do so cuz the rainwater's dirty hahaha.

Showing me her peacock and Chinese dance. Cutest thing she told me that made me wanna hug her and never let her go:

"Gwendolyn jiejie I wanna become a dancer when I grow up!"

After lunching at MBS we decided to head down to my relative's place at Ion Orchard.

Oh the envy. Really wish I could stay there too :(

Snapped this in the Orchard Residences carpark!

The cars are soooooooo pweety.

In the (very cold) lift.

View of the pool from their balcony!

My babygirls whom I dote on very much.

They were showing me how to play this Japanese toy. Really cute! It's like Cooking Mama but the less advanced, less high-tech version. The whole thing was in Japanese, but apparently they were smart enough to figure the game out.

You have to switch the things from time to time, depending on what you're cooking!

Bbg playing the harmonica. She learnt how to play a song on her own!

Was it happy birthday or something? I forgot. But yes she's so talented. Luv her to bits!

My couz Jonathan came into the room and was like, "Hahaha, this is the media-crazy generation."

Made In Candy!

Ending off with two very badly taken night shots so seeeeeeya!