Aaron's Adventures: August 2011

This is such a crappily formatted entry - was trying to use Blogger's new interface, and decided to use their new photo uploader. But that uploader kept adding links/centering my photos, making it damn hard to adjust and write content in between images.... I got so fed up with it, this is probably the last time I'm using that - going to revert back to the photobucket method :) Read on! ---------------

With that, here's a summary entry of what I've been up to for the whole month of August 2011.

August 2011

eight.Aug

Marina Bay Sands ArtScience Museum with Divya Ramesh and Darren Goh.

There was a promotion for National Day at the MBS ArtScience Museum. I've been wanting to visit the musuem for ages, but the entrance fee was a bit too pricey for my liking. They finally lowered the entrance fee for locals, and free exhibitions for August, in line with National Day.

Frankly, it was smaller than I thought, so I didn't take that many photos.

Mostly very abstract art... much unlike some other NHB museums with artefacts that are more relatable and easy understood.

Must say, I liked this piece quite a lot. Check out Divya's retarded face. HAHA.Then we got to some distorting mirrors.

Midgets :D

Now we are on stilts.

Divya the fat ah-ma.

Ooh, so deep!

I love this quote!

After that, we stopped by the Sands, of course, for Coffee Bean. Yummy.

Mocha ice-blended - what I love Coffee Bean for. For everything else, head to Starbucks.

Divya, with her classic face.

For the price we paid, I'd say the MBS isn't very worth the buck.

Perhaps I can't appreciate art, but I have been to the Asian Civilizations Museum, Peranakan Museum and the Singapore Art Museum - those were cheaper, and much better.

nine.Aug

Farewell Dinner with Janel at Jumbo @ Dempsey

Camille, Janel and I have talked of a seafood get-together for a few years now. Given our extremely tight finances as students plus the insane NUSHS work schedule, we didn't really have a proper opportunity / occasion to actually start striking this particular task off our to-do list.

But here we finally are, as we come together for a farewell dinner, before Janel heads off to University of California, Berkeley for her undergraduate studies - Materials Science and Engineering - under a Defence Science and Technolog Agency (DSTA) Scholarship.

Sometimes, I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that everyone's moving on... from that sheltered haven of NUS High School. We are all spreading our wings, pursuing our dreams... or just being, well, stuck in National Service for now.

Jumbo at Dempsey Hill, where I had my 17th Birthday Dinner with my family :)

Time sure flies!

We ordered a magnificient 6-course meal, just nice for 6 pax.

Steamed fish.

Bad photography here, but whatever.

This was quite worth the money! Some buttered prawns as recommended by Janel.

What is a seafood dinner without Crab? Chili Crab with mantou... the highlight of our dinner!

Farewell Janel, for at least 2 years.

It's seriously crazy how fast time flies. One moment we were sitting next to each other in class, struggling to master integration in three weeks, and next thing we know, we are all off to our respective universities.

Sometimes I'm glad that I'm still in National Service... the moment University begins, it's like the start of the rest of our lives. These teensy years will then have completely passed us by... so I need to cherish my youth as much as possible!

14 August 2011

Farewell Brunch with Jessica Loo at The Garden Slug.

Another farewell brunch, this time with Jessica, whom I've worked with under the National Education Ambassadors (NEA) and the Singapore International Mathematics Challenge (2010)

She has been quite a joy to work with, with her bubbly personality. Jessica is heading to University College London (UCL) to study Economics, under the Public Service Commission (PSC) Singapore Government Scholarship.

I can't wait to head to UCL too! That is, if I don't decide to go to the US instead...

Anyway, we decided to dine at the Garden Slug, one of my favourite brunch places, with fantastic all-day breakfast sets.

At Lorong L Telok Kurau.

Yummy Iced Lemongrass Tea. A perennial favourite.

Standard all-day breakfast set.

Jess giving a toast to the awesomeness of the Garden Slug!

Forgot what this was called

A toast to future civil servants-to-be!

You're probably wondering why Darren isn't in the previous photo... that's because he came a spectacular 1 hour late.

We are anticipating the future, when we will meet up and share our own experiences in separate fields of the civil service. Perhaps we'll meet again at the Garden Slug?

nineteen.Aug

Visit to NUS University Town

Camille and Yang Xuan just enrolled in NUS, studying Bioegineering and Environmental Engineering respectively. They are in the University Scholars Programme, so they're staying at the newly constructed Cinnamon College in the brand new NUS University Town.

It's high time NUS added some fresh flavour to its landscape. It's so hilly and dull.

Camille's room... 6 rooms are linked into one common area. Quite an awesome living space!

It's the babs, yo.

Cinnamon College.

The landscaping is beautiful! Where else in NUS can you find such manicured lawns?

Studying area.

Such big open spaces... Really reminds me of my time in Imperial College, at the Queen's Lawn.

U-Town has its own Koufu, Fish & Co Express, Cheers, and Starbucks!

We had dinner at Fish & Co.

The beautiful new Camille Arcinas.

This redefines "Boo, babu".

Discounts for all of us yo. I used my old NUS Card in order to get discount :p. Thank God I took that module last year.

We had quite a good discussion over dinner, with some good quotes. Well, it was mostly anti-Divya as usual.

Divya, "I wonder where I would be if I had taken A Levels."

Me, "Then you'll be in SIM!"

and...

Camille, "All your boys are in NS, divya, where are you going to find new boys?"

Divya, "I don't need to find boys. Boys come to me."

As usual, it was a pretty darn good catch-up with old NUSHS folks :) Will always cherish these friends.

twenty.Aug

Janel's Farwell and Departure to UC Berkeley

Yes, and now the part where she actually leaves for Berkeley :)

Us with our specially made lamb from Build-a-Bear workshop! Shared with Darren, Camille, Yangxuan, Rebecca and Divya!

Isn't this the cutest lamb ever???

The process of making this lamb was incredibly embarrassing! The staff at Build-a-Bear kept making me do awkward things like rub the heart in my two hands, kiss the heart, etc. I mean, it makes sense if I'm a kid but hello???? Thankfully no one was around to see that!

Then again, it's these little things that add to the appeal of the brand!

Aww... to think Janel will be gone until May 2013.

Here's wishing her all the best :)

twenty-six.Aug

Lunch at Maxwell + Dessert at Bonheur Patisserie with Andyy

As I celebrated Gerald's birthday last month, NS has indeed welcomed a new circle of friends. NUSHS has been quite a sheltered place I guess. Even as I attended numerous overseas and local student conferences, I was probably mingling with people from the same backgrounds - students who were academically-inclined and from slightly more privileged families.

Being able to attend University was never an issue for most of the people within my circle of friends, even for most of those at the periphery. To suddenly be exposed to individuals who struggle to make it to University, or even just making it into a good polytechnic after their ITE education, has been an incredibly eye-opening experience.

National Service is indeed a social leveler.

Anyway, my sister handed me a 50% off voucher for Bonheur Patisserie, a little bakery in Duxton. It was expiring, and I decided to ask Andy out. I met Andy recently (in April) in the course of work in NS (he's my 3SG). I was quite surprised the first time we sat down and had a conversation - we talked for about two hours straight! Since then, he has been quite a joy to have around in camp, with all the long hours spent chatting about well... just about anything. :) (Once we spent 5 hours straight at the sentry chatting LOL)

I think it's quite rare to find someone who's just on the same wavelength as you - Brenda, Pek, Darren, etc. These people make for great company.

Cheesecake.

Green tea cake... really spongey, tastes a bit like overly-moist pandan cake.

This picture is a bit strange... wish we took a better one!

twenty.seven.Aug

Back in school for SDYC 2011

So I spent the bulk of last year working on organizing the Sustainable Development Youth convention 2010, as the Head of Public Relations. Now that we have graduated, it's incredible that our juniors have taken over, furthering the vision we all had from the start - for continuity, and to provide a platform for students to learn skills and expand their worldview.

It was pretty amazing seeing the Convention run in its second year, bigger and better than before. Here's a shot of us 2010 Exco, gathered together again:

Back together!

The reason I'm so underdressed is because I was there in the morning for a field trip - helping Mrs Madeline Lim with her ecology research group, since the school lacks ecology research mentors at the moment.

thirty.Aug

Brenda's Farewell Party cum Housewarming

Balloons from her relatives! I love the graduation cap.

We were kind of early, and for a moment, all of Brenda's friends seemed to be guys alone LOL, and all her relatives were secretly casting us, or rather, HER, judgmental looks.