Showing posts with label 2013. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2013. Show all posts
31 Jan 2013

Birthday 2013 Part 1 - USS

It's a belated post and there're things I'm bz with, but I think this year's birthday is blog-worthy. It's better late than never. :) 

I used to look forward to my birthday every year when I was young because it's one special day of the entire year where you get exclusive (but short-spanned) attention from all your classmates, relatives and family. Apart from me being just a tad more attention-seeking, I think anyone out there would love to be cared for, to be showered attention and love on. Attention aside, we would expect birthday presents and thoughtful surprises when we were young and materialistic. Of course la, who doesn't fancy freebies! The more friends you have, the more freebies you get on your birthday. ^^

But well, I wasn't a top popular kid in school, so, very sadly I don't receive many bday surprises and presents. So, I grew up and learnt how to be satisfied with the blessings from people who bother to wish me well for my day, my career, my life, my looks and my future. Not only that, I also began to not feel so gian about bday presents anymore because I don't seem to lack anything after becoming self-sufficient and more independent. Lol, i'm not exactly self-consoling as I did grow to have a super thoughtful boyfriend and a hell lot of close friends who love me so much and would plan birthday surprises for me, send me long sincere messages, bring me out for yummy treats and buy me presents and shopping vouchers. I REALLY APPRECIATE THESE THOUGHTFUL GESTURES. I LOVE MY FRIENDS AND BF. However, I tend to observe that birthdays are no longer like before, at least not as shallow and forgettable anymore. Right now, I'm in a love-hate relationship with the upcoming birthdays from this year onwards. It's liberating to think that you are finally mature enough to earn a living for yourself and buy whatever you yearn for when your age begins to start with the digit '2' and onwards. With an older age, comes great responsibilities too. Studies are history and you step out into the world notorious for its politics, stress, deadlines, mornings, traffic jams, fatigue and what-not. Yea, birthdays don't sound as innocent and joyous as before anymore. 

Honestly, those words above are my true sentiments on the meaning of birthdays and how it has evolved through the years. But of course, every year I STILL ENJOY MY BIRTHDAYS IMMENSELY LA. :D 
With my optimism and enthusiasm about life, I highly doubt that I'd overly burden myself with the negatives of growing up because I am one who EMBRACE CHALLENGES AND WOULD LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST. ;) Have y'all read enough? Time for pictures? I'd say AYE! ;)

This year, I turned 23. It's the biggest number under the 'Age' section that I've seen on my own application and registration forms, as well as in my resume. O.O Actually, i have to say that Leonard, the bf was very sweet to have planned something very special and different from before. What I was told was that he researched and reserved a table at an exclusive and expensive fine-dining restaurant to give me a treat. To date, I've yet to find out which restaurant it is. BECAUSE I WAS SUCH A LOUSY GF. Instead of feeling all appreciative and fortunate, I made a fuss about the money that wouldn't be justified having spent on a meal. Frankly, I THINK I WAS OUT OF MY MIND. :/ I'm so bloody curious now about where he'd wanted to bring me. D: 

I must be really cray to have requested for a USS roller coaster day as opposed to the atas expensive dinner. I had really intense craving for adrenaline rush during my birthday week and pestered Leonard non-stop to maximize our day by fulfilling the birthday girl's wish. 

End up...

Lunch at Loui's NY Pizza Parlor.

Bee looking really cute and pleasant despite his ah beng hair color. 

Hawaiian pizza cum tiramisu predator ;)


USS is currently Sesame-street-themed. Look at the cute cupcakes! :)
Slightly more pricey than the retail cupcakes cost, but then again it's USS. 


After lunch, Leo and I each carried a bloated tummy and went for the mummy ride, transformer ride, treasure hunter ride and Shrek the 4D movie while waiting for the food to be digested. As lame as ever was the mummy ride which we had taken 573189354 times before, so we posed for the photo snapshot at the drop by kissing. I loved the effect of it actually because as others were shutting their eyes tight or screaming at the top of their lungs, we were posing shamelessly, aloof of the short freefall drop. :p The transformer ride was still breathtaking. ^^ Treasure hunter was lame and we got sprayed at by the donkey's sneezes 4 freaking times at the Shrek movie. -___________- 

What's worth mentioning is this........
MONSTER ROCK LIVE ROCK MUSICAL! :)
Oh gosh! I cannot believe that after heading to USS for (again) 5962878785964 times, I haven't watched this awesome bombz before despite being so curious of what it's showing at the 3 fixed daily timings. O.O
For those who haven't watched, there's live singing done by a hyperactive and talented group of 'monsters' who'd be dancing while showcasing their impressive vocals. I really enjoyed the R&B theme for the musical, as well as the visual effects we were exposed to. The experience was indeed rewarding.

So after the musical, we thought we were ready for the best ride in USS, Battlestar Galatica. There was no queue at all even though the timer at the entrance of the ride shows that we gotta wait up to 5 to 10min. The moment we reached the end of the non-existent queue, we were ushered in to waiting area just before we can board the ride. SUPER FAST I TELL YOU! I managed to open my eyes at both the crazy freefall drop for both the Human and Cylon rides when i didn't dare to prior to that day. Many have been curious which one is the "scarier" ride. In my opinion, both are not, but i'd say Cylon gives me stronger adrenaline rush due to the 3 360 flips. Super awesome! I remember taking it at night during Halloween 2012 and I thought to myself that Singapore should have a theme park that operates till late night! Shiokkkkk x10000 were the 2 instances when the blue carriage enters the cooling mist zones in the dark. You don't expect anything, you don't see anything. Just feel the wind and fly. <3

Yups, so when we THOUGHT that we were ready to challenge in the Galatica, I emerged from the exit feeling nauseous. -________________- max. I blame the hugeass slice of pizza. -.-


We became victims of tourist pricing at USS. Look what I've gotten below.
A $4 bottle of apple juice which hardly quenched our thirst. Still, it was refreshing amidst the crazy sun.
The afternoon weather in Singapore really spares nobody. We perspired so much. :/ 

My thoughtful boyfriend who smuggled churros into our rest point, Starbot cafe located just beside the transformer ride entrance. To my disappointment, the churros was overdone and was too tough to munch on. It's freaking expensive, about $3-4. So much for craving for it the moment I stepped into USS that day. -.-

After a few more rounds of roller coasters, we found ourselves playing "scissors paper stone" on the rides.
Yea, the adrenaline rush dropped exponentially every time we re-board the rides. Finally, we got to the point of wanting to leave the theme park even though we had initially wanted to fully maximize the entrance ticket by staying till it closes. 

Pretending to be tourists just before departure. 


I'll continue blogging about Marine Life Park and SEA Aquarium for my birthday part 2 post! :) 

THANK YOU LEONARD MA. 
I CAN FIND NO BETTER GUY THAN YOU WHO SUITS ME SO PERFECTLY. <3 


Birthdays are overrated. Yet, I can't help but enjoy them. Thankful.

31 Dec 2012

Best of 2012

I foresee a bloody long post ahead in summarizing and penning down my insight on awesome 2012. 

2012 new year resolutions
Out of my sixteen 2012 new year resolutions set on 5th Jan, I can safely conclude that I achieved majority of them! To be exact, I have checked 11.5 out of 16 of them! Woohoo! :D On top of that, 2012 has also surprised me pleasantly with many other new encounters and experiences which were beyond my expectations. Friends, heed my advice, setting practical new year resolutions at the start of the year really aids you in progressing in your steps to achieve your short and long term goals in life. Some of you might think that there's no point in setting any because eventually you will tend to neglect them as the year proceeds on. I, too, used to suffer from the frustration of not having the determination to achieve my past year resolutions, but look at my achievement now! My resolutions became more practical and more attainable even. 

Insight
Honestly, I don't think it's because of the resolutions that changed me to be better at self discipline, but conversely it's the gradual internal change in perspective and mindset (or you can even call it the growth in maturity) that led to my success in my attainment of goals set ahead. I cannot explain the mechanisms behind it. It might be due to the greater understanding of myself after experiencing more events and occasions across the year or/and a better look at the reality from interacting with a variety of people in my enlarged social circle. All in all, my point is I think all of us should write down our new year resolutions somewhere we will not forget so that we can bring it out after a year of ups and downs to analyze how much we have grown as individuals. :) It can work as a personal check on whether you're still being true to yourself or have deviated from your true original goals. Then, it would also be helpful to question yourself and evaluate if you're still advancing on the "right path". 

Alright. Enough of my self-inspiring monologue. 

Again, I shall break down the 2012 resolutions into larger unit categories: 

Family
In my opinion, the family aspect has been pretty well taken care of under my conscious effort to juggle all my commitments. Even though I doubt that we've become more well-off monetarily, I know the family has bonded more strongly over the year. This definitely matters more than the financial part now as I'm sure, in a year's time, we can all worry even less since i'd be contributing to the family income then. I guess the next challenge for us would be to handle my brother who is entering the adolescent age but he has all of us to count on.

Academic
No matter how much my grades in school have fluctuated, I'm glad to be finally able to take a rest from all those struggles with the bell curve. I'm immensely thankful and satisfied to have obtained a bachelor's degree with a pass with merit, just like an average university student after 18 years of education under MOE. Wrote more about my NUS journey over at Bye NUS. 

Love
Many a times, I questioned myself and Leonard about this relationship we had held on and maintained over the past 4+ years. He doesn't match the perfect catch I have in mind, but neither do I. The 2012 journey with him had been a relatively smooth-sailing one as compared to past years despite the episodes of arguments which we would both regret to have sparked them off in the first place. What's for sure in the year of 2013 is that both of us will become better at loving each other. Thank you bee for being the most loyal boyfriend anyone can ask for. :) I'm looking forward to strengthening our r/s and growing to become more mature as a couple with you for another glorious year ahead. May our soft toy collection increase! HAHAH. <3

Friendship
The once-neglected aspect of my life became one of the highlights this year. I must thank each and everyone of you for putting up with my imperfect personality and my failure to be a friend whom you can count on at all times. Nonetheless, the crazy surge in the number of meet-ups with you guys that were organized are still heartwarming when recalled. Even though we are not omnipresent in one another's lives, I know you guys are true friends whom I can count on and seek comfort in for the rest of my life. :) I shall not mention names because it's only more meaningful when you read this and know I'm referring to you. <3 you all. 

Work
In the year of 2012, what I would consider as my work would only be my part time tuition jobs that I took up while schooling in NUS. I didn't achieve 1 of my resolutions which is to help my P6 students obtain a PSLE score of 250 and above. But, they didn't do badly at all if you consider 240 and 245 as pretty remarkable PSLE scores. :) I'm so proud of both of them even though I didn't express my contentment to them dramatically like OMG I'M SO PROUD OF YOU! But i am really really happy that they performed so impressively. 

Recently, I've a new addition to my "work" - blogging. I'm surprised to find out that everyday I've an average of about 3000-4500 unique visitors and 7500 pageviews per month and the number keeps increasing even though ZiweiSandy.com has only been around for less than 1 year. It's really heartening cos it means that my effort to record down my personal 2-cents' worth of reviews and recommendations are acknowledged by my friends and readers who keep coming back for more. ^^ Thanks soooo much for your unspoken support! However, in other news, I'd like to officially announce that ZiweiSandy.com will be focused  mainly on music and my covers, as well as other noteworthy snippets/updates of my post-graduation life for the next year. Of course, I'd still welcome advertisers to come forth if they're interested in sponsorship/advertorials/reviews. :) Just email me (ziweisandy@gmail.com) for negotiation if what you would like me to publicize is related to events, travel, beauty, fashion and food~ 

Driving 
I started my driving lessons this year and took 1 test which I failed due to inadequate practice in the driving circuit. So, it means I didn't attain my 2012 new year resolution which is to pass driving by mid of 2012. But,  now i'm already quite decent driver on the roads, so I'm actually more than halfway there in getting my driving license! :) 

Travel
Even though I didn't manage to travel to Taiwan, I left Singapore 4 times this year, with 3 out of 4 of them sponsored! :) Bangkok in May, Genting in July, Bintan in Oct and Genting in Nov ;)

Youtube
I think my most commendable personal achievement would be the setting up of my youtube channel: Ziweisandy. It consists of a mix of English and Chinese songs, of which some are song requests from friends and others are songs that i loved. If you haven't heard, click on the links below! :) Audio wise, my personal favourite is Safe & sound, which is also my most recent cover before I lost my voice). Overall, I think the more well done videos are the 2 Chinese songs: 我也很想他 and 红豆 (which is also my first and only music video to date). 

Sponsored events

Sponsorship
Dejavu (yet to blog)

Reviews 
Choupinette @ Bt Timah
Hatched @ Holland V
Sapore Italiano @ NUS Utown
Barracks Cafe @ Dempsey Rd
Food for Thought @ Botanic Gardens
Roadhouse @ Dempsey Rd 
Marugoto Shokudou @ Ang Mo Kio
Bai Mi Fen @ Sembawang
Saveur @Bugis
Incanto @RWS


Performance and featured opportunities 

Besides all these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for an amateur blogger like me, I'd conclude that 2012 is the best year that I've had thus far, especially notable in the fantastic luck I enjoyed this year in my big and small wins from the games of poker and mahjong with my friends and relatives. I'm now a devout believer of luck after this year. lol.

To my friends and readers:
In the upcoming 2013, I wish everyone to be presented with many precious opportunities that are useful in your path to success, greater wealth and happiness, maturity and rationality, best of health, strengthened friendship and more bonded family kinship and a smooth-sailing love life ahead. 

HAPPY 2013 TO ALL!!!!! :D




P/s: I'm gonna take awhile to come up with my 2013 new year resolutions as this year will be a watershed for me since academia and school will no longer be part of my life YESAH!! 
© Ziwei.Sandy. Designed by CJS. Powered by Blogger.