Le Chocolat Cafe

Spending the whole weekend with my bumpy is becoming a regular thing to do.
Sometimes it does suck not to have him around always, but at the same time, you learn to cherish each other more, especially during the weekend when you just want to spend every moment.
You rather not waste time on other things which can be accomplish during the weekdays.
And better still, you also don't want to waste time on arguments or setbacks which waste time.
Bumpy's current favorite words is 'where got time?!'

To admit, it isn't easy being together with an army boy.
You wait for Friday to come each weekend and you scream in agony if the boy gets confinement or guard duty on the weekend.
Other times on the weekdays, you wait for 9.30pm onwards to come, stare aimlessly at the phone just waiting for the most important call of the day.
And suddenly, the rest of the matter can wait when the call comes in. After all, it's just for that one hour (or more or less) that you get to speak to him for the whole day. That you get to rant to him about things that bother you, annoy you, satisfy you, please you or anything that happened in the day. And in exchange, you hear about his day, how his training went, how was his e-learning and his awesome meals in camp. You learn to be positive for him, encouraging and supporting his journey.
In a way, both sides learn to be understanding and more supportive.

Anyway onto today's post. I met my bumpy at Serangoon mrt before we headed down to Chinatown for lunch. Today we did a mixture of hawker food and cafe finding.

As the Mid-Autumn Festival draws near, Chinatown is brightly and colourful decorated with lanterns.
Stringed across the road, the colourful lanterns will definitely captured your attention once you're in Chinatown area.
Now makes me wonder how it would look like at night when the lights are on.
Oh well, another three weeks later I would be walking under the block with Bumpy and at the end of the night, we would play with candles and burn the lanterns. Muahahah!
Of course not forgetting to eat mooncakes and have tea to go with it.

Outside Chinatown mrt, just the main tourist street, there lies another attraction. The lanterns are hand painted by students of different primary schools and they are proudly displayed for everyone to admire and snap pictures of.
The two pictures were kind of a monkey-see-monkey-do action. I saw another pair of photographer taking from that angle, and well, armature me decided to follow suit.

Decrease the exposure for these shot since I'm directly below the sun. It's either that or I would be taking a far too bright picture.
And surprisingly it turned out well, not too bad.
Improving in my photography taking. Time to be using my camera more often for pictures already since my phone is about to retire from pictures taking.
Moving into lunch, today Bumpy introduce me to a really nice place for roasted meat. And just nice the timing where I am in need of protein.
It's a store near People's Park Complex. Just around that area is the main hawker centre nearby, you just can't miss it 'cause of the amount of people stopping there to buy food.

The char siew is like the best I have eaten. A good balance between the meat and the fatness. Juicy stuff.
And the roast pork is crispy and crunchy at the top, with a good flavour of meat. Even the roast duck was like food-orgasm. Hahah!
The only downside of this store; the price. For a plate to feed both of us, it costed $19.20.
I'll say it's pricey for a hawker food, but tasting the meat, somehow it seemed sort of worth it. You got to admit that at times good food doesn't come cheap.

After that we headed off to find our dessert place. Heard about it from my friend that this cafe served rainbow cake as well, so it's a rainbow hunt to find it.
At the same time, we were finding a steak place to have after Bumpy' outfield.

Located at Club Hotel, we found our dessert place!
We ordered two types of desserts; the famous rainbow cake and brownie with ice cream.

From the first appearance, the rainbow cake looks sweet. Especially with the chocolate coated and dripping chocolate down.
At the second glance, it does have the six layers of a rainbow cake. However I wasn't satisfied with the design. The cake layer were unfortunately unevenly baked, with some layers being thinner or thicker than the others. And the stacking of the cake was also uneven. To top it off, it had a 'generous' serving of cream at the top.
To be honest, I hate cream on cakes. It put me off instantly and I would literally try my best to scoop the cream off if possible.
With this, I just felt that it was too much creamy and the cake was just disappointing for me. At the last part, I decided to scoop away all the cream before finally having the last few bites without the overload of creamy-ness.

The thick layer of cream both at the top and side. Together with the uneven layers.

The first bite.
For the second dessert, we had the brownie with ice cream.
Mainly we chose that dessert 'cause of the size of the brownie. I mean that thing is huge. It's like the size of my palm and usually we don't see brownie in that size. Hahah.

A good piece of brownie I'll say. Not too chocolatey and with the addition of nuts inside, it's not bad.
Decent should be the right word.

The food listed are priced before GST and service charged. A quiet place for weekend brunch or cakes eating.
Though service is a little slow despite that there wasn't much crowd when we were there. Pretty much less initiative staffs.

Le Chocolat Cafe
Club Hotel, 28 Ann Siang Hill
Mon - Sun 07:00 to 20:00

My Bumpy all booked into camp and I won't be seeing him for 18 days. It sound like confinement period all over again. Only that this time we know we're getting better at it, and that after his outfield, we will spam the weekend with each other.
Till then, we will wait another 18 days to compare skin colours and see much darker he will get.
Then again, who ever said love is easy?

Lola's Cafe

A little cafe that just opened a month ago (I think or more) along Simon Road.
Decided to head there on Sunday for brunch with Bumpy.
The cafe is a retro style and their table is even made from retro sewing machine. During the meal, I was busy moving the machine up and down, making a horrible creaking sound to annoy others. Heheh.
It was a cafe that appeared on 8 days and figured well it's nearby my area why not.
To be honest, I never really eaten at any cafe around my area like at all before. Seriously. To think the past 20 years that I stay around my area, I don't really eat here much. Maybe kovan hawker centre here and there. But that seemed about all.

Do love their clock though.
Definitely want such an unique clock in my future home. Decorate my home to have a slightly retro yet modern style.
And of course hopefully a couch beside the window. A place of relaxation, book reading and daydreaming. But of course the window better have a good view.

We ordered their brunch set.
Avocado Eggs Benedict and Full Meaty Breakfast.
I enjoyed Bumpy's brekkie more than mine.
The sausage, bacon and scrambled eggs are seriously awesome. The bread not really cause it's slightly hard for my liking.
But that's one recommended set to order when you're there.

The Egg Benedict is alright as well, decent meal, or maybe just learning that Egg Benedict not really my kind of brekkie/brunch that I would like to have.

For desserts, we tried their brownie and this salted chocolate tart with Kahlua cream.
The brownie deserve every thumbs up for the rich moist and chocolatey slice. Super happy that Bumpy ordered it.
Definitely coming back here just for the brownie and maybe more items on the menu. And another cafe to add to my list of chill out places.

Lola's Cafe
#01-00 5 Simon Road
Tue - Sun 11:00 to 00:00

The Coffee Daily

This weekend started with a little overdose of dessert.

And considering I had strictly placed myself on a 19 days of no dessert, a sudden overload of dessert intake does make me nausea. Surprisingly from a disciplined dessert eater like me. 

Then again I literally was off limits to desserts. It was terrible, horrible and I nearly fainted of low sugar level inside me. 

So when my Bumpy had his first book out on Friday night, I was happy to the maximum. 

Waited for him at Pasir Ris for him to come down from the bus and hopping into the cab to head home. 

The first awkward moment seeing him in green after 19 days and for the first moment it really did seem foreign. Like is this really my boyfriend. He doesn't look like my boyfriend at all! Hahah.

Okay he better not be reading this part.

But eventually having him beside me again even just for this weekend, I know this is my boyfriend. Maybe he's not entirely the same as before. Inside, I feel that he grown up. More mature, more appreciative, more loving, knowing his priorities and obviously more mushy.

Maybe after booking out, you learnt that you don't want to spend the weekend in front of the computer playing dota, you rather be spending it with family, with girlfriend and with friends. 

And this weekend, he managed to accomplish all. Above all, I get to spend all three days with him, even while I was studying for my paper. 

Another 3 more days and I'm seeing him again. 

Somewhat true that when you have an army boyfriend, your whole weekend practically revolve around him. 

Weekdays are then used for other friends instead.

On Saturday night we headed down to Serangoon Gardens for a little dessert and meeting with his friends.

Personally I did not enjoy the red velvet cake at all.

The cake texture was crumbly and the amount of cream cheese frosting was insufficient for the amount of cake available. Overall I felt that it was quite a piece of disappointing slice.

As for the rainbow cake, I enjoyed it as well as I did last time. Just that I needed more time to complete the cake. For a six layer happiness cake, you definitely do not want to rush through the process.

Probably or definitely damn sure that Bumpy died of dessert overload that night at the rate that he ate more than me. 

Next time we're heading there with a book and spending a lazy afternoon there just enjoying the atmosphere and cakes available.

75 Brighton Crescent

Mon - Thur 12:00 to 22:30

Fri 12:00 to 23:30

Sat 9:30 to 23:30

Sun 9:30 to 22:30

Rokeby

A little late entry, almost more than a week ago.
Just spend the last two weeks grounding myself at home, and didn't really find much mood to go out, or do much. Then again, studies do take up the rest of the time away.
Finished my first paper yesterday and my next one is on Thursday. After that it's three days worth of fun, eat, sleep, and do whatever before a new term starts again on Monday.
And 6 weeks later, another time to mugging.

Mood been up and down, depending on the day and activities. Some days are good, some days well, not that good.
Some days you feel like murdering those idiots, other days you wonder why you let them bother you so. While inside you still know you want to murder them. Hahah.
So on a Sunday headed down to Rokeby with Shermin for brunch.

A hidden gem in a neighborhood area. And just a few stops down there lays Wimbly Lu.
The cafe is decorated accordingly to an Australian style, which also explains the number of Caucasians exploring the cafe. And some are even more adventurous to take the seats outside, enjoying Singapore warmth and a nice cup of beer.
Arrived there earlier on time and my lunch buddy arrived late instead. LOL.
Got distracted with a little boy seated opposite me instead, little curious young kid whose adoring face melt the hearts of adult.

Their menu is simple. The main dishes on the front, and the back page is the different drinks available.
In additional, one thing that all Singaporeans would enjoy is the subtraction of GST and service charge in the total cost.
Decided to try their Eggs Royale for bunch and matched with a pot of English breakfast tea.

It's a competition between the Eggs Royale and Eggs Blackstone.
I do enjoy their hollandaise sauce and their salad of green as well. Though after a while, it does seemed too sweet for my liking.
Maybe slightly less sauce would be better.

Overall, the meal was nice and the atmosphere was not too bad. We had the corner and window seat which give us a perfect view of the road outside. A nice place for brunch, though I have yet to try their waffles. Perhaps another day.
One thing for sure, it's quite a distance to walk from Serangoon mrt. So prepared the umbrella and walking under the heat.
And if it's not enough, there always another dessert store just few steps away.

15-9 Jalan Riang
Singapore 358987
Tue-Sun from 9.00 am to 10.00 pm
Closed on Mondays

Just next Friday

Just next Friday to seeing my favorite boy. Definitely can't wait, that's for sure.
At the same time, it's kind of dreading that I got about 2 weeks to study for my both papers.
A lot more to study this time for my both exams and the thing is the questions aren't exactly fixed for either papers as well. Just got to start typing out my answers and let the memorizing work begins.
Motivation to finish my revision by next Friday so I can spend all day with him.

Mood been up and down lately. Sometimes depending on the texts I received through the day, sometimes its the email that I received instead. Either way, now I have stuffs to focus on and it's just the last two laps before I am done with part one. A month break and I will continue with part two. Maybe find a short-term job in the month just for a bit of money to save for Christmas shopping.

Hmm, seen it revolving around instagram lately about 20 facts about me. So let's start..
#1. I love black, like seriously. The easiest colour to match with anything and everything.
#2. I have trouble keeping long fingernails because my nails get brittle very easily and break. As much as I really love long fingernails to scratch.
#3. I have a love-hate thing about running actually.
#4. I am the worst murmur to myself.
#5. I tend to have more negative than positive thoughts/feelings/emotions.
#6. I am the best procrastinator.
#7. I wish I have more artistic side like a bit of drawing, painting, picture angle for photo taking and matching of clothes.
#8. I hate doing house chores. Seriously.
#9. I love number 9 and 29.
#10. I actually have a bad short tempter and am impatience.
#11. I prefer doing/going places alone.
#12. I hate eating alone though. I would buy snacks to munch on while walking instead.
#13. I love cheesecake and chocolate cake.
#14. I actually have quite low self-esteem.
#15. I usually start things that I don't finish, which is really bad.
#16. I think too much. Like all the time.
#17. I love piercings, like a lot. Though I pierce and re-pierced a lot of times already that now it's debating whether I should pierce again. I want to try a facial piercing once though. At least.
#18. There a lot of stuffs that I want to do, but the thought of how society frown upon the choices limit me a lot. To say that I am indeed affected by how people look/think of me.
#19. I hate it when people don't mean what they're saying and keep repeating the words. Like the continuous apologizing or saying about regrets. I mean come on, make amendments then.
#20. I hate my legs. Big time. Literally. Seriously.

9 more days

So another two weeks of absence of not blogging, though there is not much to blog.
My sad adidas kind of the road got cancelled about two weeks ago due to the heavy rain in the morning, though to admit I was kind of happy that it got cancelled. Firstly, it was a race that I was not prepared for, let alone did much training for it. Come to think of it, I have not been doing much running nowadays. Sunday become a challenge for me to get up to run. Other days I self motivate myself that I will attempt to do my crunches, lurches and squats at home but eventually so far I have done twice only. It is indeed a poor attempt. Maybe the motivation dropped, maybe it's the company since now I don't have any running buddies to train with me (apart from Sunday) and to go stadium alone is kind of sad. Instead dessert eating becomes guilty pleasures.

Though amazingly since my boy enlisted into NS, I have not touched any dessert at all since. A little of withdrawal symptoms as well considering I was on a high dessert diet every week, attempting to have at least three desserts per week and now it has dramatically dropped to zero. Least I'm not sugar low I hope. Just going to wait till my boy books out in 9 days time and we'll go for dessert together. At the moment I'm cravings for cheesecake, rainbow cake and macaroons. Desperately want to try the Laurdee macaroons at Taka but the thought of spending much money of these little burger dessert is just not worth it. No matter how much I am tempted to get a piece, just paying $3-7 for the tiny burger, I rather get the real burger from Carl's Junior or even Fatboy. Hahah! Oh well. Then again there are outlets in S'pore which have macaroons, so there's always alternative to wanting macaroons. It's just a matter of googling the macaroons in S'pore and determine which is worth the price to pay.
Till then, I shall patiently to wait to have cheesecake again. Then again I am suppose to attempt to bake some time soon again. What happen to baking my hot cross buns. I got the yeast, just without the chocolate chips but the problem is TIME. That's something I don't have at the moment.

Having some irritated frustrated feelings at the moment, especially this morning during my lecture. Almost wanted to start an argument with my lecturer. I mean like our exam is in two weeks time, and he didn't exactly give much of focus point for us to know what kind of questions would come out in exams and I was quite frustrated by it. I mean that's a lot to study for a book of 9 chapters. Eventually after the break, then he started being more concentrated and like giving us more hints about what to come out for exams. And to break the ice, he even addressed me in front of the class asking if it was a lot to study since I showed my obvious displeased after he went through chapter 1. And the funny thing he said is how I was one of the few who participated in the class discussion which showed that I did come reading before coming class. Lol! And to think I was reading it off from the textbook on the spot. But well in the end at least he gave us better hints for exams. Thank goodness.

Feeling like a spoilt brat at times, now that my maid has went home for a three weeks break, the home become smaller. And I got to help my mom with duties at times. Though it's the simple ones of throwing the rubbish out, helping her get some items, feeding the dog/tortoise or just buying dinner home, I feel that if now in future I have to learn to do all these on my own, I might take super long time to get them done. Maybe I just too used to having a maid around that I relied on her doing things for me, such that in the process I get too pampered. In a bad sense, some stuffs I realized I don't really know how to do. Like literally. Today after a year of not doing house chores on my own, I realized how horrible I am at changing bed sheets. Lol. Mom even laughed at the way I changed my bed sheets. Tsk yes.

Meanwhile, it sometimes feeling the annoyance of being the youngest child. Knowing that despite everything, when your parents want you to do something, you still have to do it and can't say no. While big brother gets away with not doing much 'cause he is busy with work every weekday and sometimes even on weekends, responsibility then fall on your shoulder. It gets tiring at times, that in the middle of doing something, you're given something else to do, errands to run, chores. Sometimes it leaves me wondering what if I'm not the youngest child, would I bully the younger one as well? Or would I pamper my littler brother/sister. In any case, it's not easy being a child, whether youngest, oldest or middle child. Every kid would suffer negligence from parents one way or another, feel that parents are not being fair to them at times or the division of love between the siblings is not equal. We are humans after all, we tends to be selfish and want the best for ourselves. Even if we put others first in actions, we can't do that for everyone, just those who are important to us. And sometimes putting others first before ourselves can be a tiring chore, sometimes it break us down when we tried too hard to please the other party, tried to make them happy all the time or tried to give in to their wants. But sometimes it's just not enough.

Probably ranting a lot of random stuffs out.

And now I'm just counting down to 30th August. Just another 9 more days before I can see him in person. Be amused at his new hairstyle and just know that now it's a different journey in life that I'm taking. It's not the same as other relationships, but then again, to compare and contrast relationships do not work out. In the end, you feel like you're living in the past, trying to find a boyfriend that is better than the previous, always searching, always comparing and when he makes one mistake, it brings you down a lot that he did not meet expectations. After that you questioned yourself, is it worth it? Is it worth making bench marks for every relationship and see if the guy achieves it? It's not a competition where you compare timing and improve each race. Relationship isn't a race. It's an ongoing training for the final marathon. During the training, you have different coaches, and each coach techniques are different, but they want the best for you, even when it doesn't seemed like the best. Perhaps it is the best in their own view, just a matter whether you agree with them or not. And during the training, you learnt new things, you even learnt things about yourself and you even learnt how to be stronger. What's the final marathon? Marriage. Walking down the aisle. But now, maybe it's one section of relationship that I choose not to think about, not to think so far ahead just yet until maybe years later with my boyfriend. It used to be easy to talk about marriage, making plans about how to live, how many kids, what kind of jobs we want and how we want live together. All seemed like a fairy tale coming together. But eventually reality kicks in, marriage isn't as simple as it seemed to be. Some fairy tales are meant to remained in books only. Maybe I'm being pessimistic in this area. Maybe I'm not giving it much thoughts again after all that happened. Maybe I just want take things slow this time and enjoy the moment.

Some people are afraid of being too happy because they think something tragic is going to happen soon -- This is known as Cherophobia. 

Are you happy?

Another ranting post. Kind of thought of this while walking home just now and then I had a lot of things on my mind, so let's see if I can type out what I had thought in my head like 2 hours ago.

People like to question other whether they are happy. Like are you happy with me? Are you happy with your life? Are you happy with what you are doing right now? Are you happy what you are studying? Are you happy today? Are you happy eating that?

What is the definition of being happy? Is it being content with what you have? Is it feeling happy inside while you're doing that particular activities? Is it the feeling that you have? What is called being happy? What do people mean by are you happy?

And what if I'm not?

Maybe if you asked me right now this moment if I'm happy, I can lie and say yes or I can be truthful and say no.
Why no. Why not yes? It's not that I'm entirely unhappy, it's not that I'm super displeased, hell damn dissatisfied. It's maybe putting in a term that I wouldn't mind changing a few situations or having a few more situations to make things happier. Lets try sorting it out nicely in a list and see how far I get.


1. I would be happy if I could not work and study
Who wouldn't be happier if they didn't have to balance work and study? Not having to rush off to work after class ends and planning schedule to see if the work assignments fit where I am going or perhaps some adjustments here and there. At the same time after hours of running around and visiting the assigned stores, at night it's report writing. Imagine writing the same questions 6-7 times until you get super bored of typing yet you know you have to be clear, precise and concise in the answers. Is it worth the money per assignment to tire myself out like this? Honestly I don't know.
However, when the pay check rolls in, there just the sense of achievement and happiness knowing that you have worked hard for it.

But...With every point, there would be something positive to argue against the negative. As much as it is tiring to juggle work and study. You learn about time management, you learn that when you have something to be done, the hell better not be distracted and focus on it. Not multi-task on Facebook, whasapp or Skype. Chatting with up to three or more friends at a time and trying to reply them as soon as possible and concentrating on what they're telling you as well. Yet conversely, you need to concentrate on your report writing and remembering the little important details of the visit.

Because of this, you learn the value of money. You know that it isn't easy to earn money, yet it's always so easy to spend the money away. To be honest, at times, I do dislike people who get their monthly allowances from their parents. It's not being super against it, I do get a bit of allowance from parents, it's sufficient to cover the basic of transport, mobile phone bill and driving lessons. Other than that, the remaining amount is then reliant on my personal savings and pay check. It keep you in check about how much you spend when you keep your own personal balance sheet. Who knew that learning accounting would come into practice. You make a Microsoft spreadsheet and just key in the amount of money you spend per day, which store is it, the items bought, the price of each item and the total amount spend for the day, for the week and for the month.


2. I would be happier if I could hang out late outside.
This been an issue that has been bothering me for quite some time. It's not that I don't have my freedom. I used to stay out late almost every night till midnight, just refusing to go home early, and yet I have the strength to wake up early the next day for work. Maybe those younger days with more energy.
I would love it if parents stopped asking me to be home early every time I tell them I'm going out. I would be happier if I could literally just go out late in the night without having my parents calling and asking what time I would be home, or like the following day to see my mom questioning me where I went the night before, who was I with and why was I home so late. It just would be nice to go out without a care, and just truly enjoy myself without the constant need to keep track of time. Indeed it's annoying, it spoil the mood because it's as though once it's past 9pm I get slightly agitated because of the need to start heading home.

The thought I being restricted by parents annoyed me countless times that I always had to return home early and sleeping early. As much has I know the next day I have class early the next day, the fact that I need be up by 6 is the harsh fact that I need to admit why I need be home early. Maybe gone are the day where I can easily survive on 4+ hours of sleep a day and continuous running around throughout the day. Sometimes I just wish the night last longer and the days are shorter. Maybe 24 hours a day just isn't enough.

Though at the same time you know it's a good habit to cultivate sleeping early and letting the body have enough rest, and having the proper 7-8 hours of sleep. It's still a logic I cannot debate against, and also knowing around midnight is the timing that I get tired already. And even if I were to be out at that timing, I would be tired and probably would not be the best company to be around with, and also logic thinking, I would just want to go home and sleep. Tskkk. I lost my vampire-ness.


3. I would be happier if I could doing things for others.
Maybe just a week without running errands, doing favors, doing this and doing that. Just maybe.
To laze at home all day in front of the computer, spam watching movies, on Facebook, 9gag, hugelol, playing game and reading books.
Without the thought that at this timing I need be doing this or that.
Yet at the same time I get myself self-annoyed instead. Maybe it's just one of those things that I keep doing to myself and get myself all miserable.

4. I would be happier if I could.