The Pensieve

Food: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian
Price: SGD ~10 for starters, 14-20 for mains, 30-50 for sharing menus
Bar: Full bar (whatever that might mean), Happy Hour from 7-9pm (50% for some drinks)

Covertly tucked away at the end of the row of restaurants (the one with NYDA, El Patio, opposite Wala Wala area), Siem Reap 1 is a branch of Indochine. It looks quite different from the other branches. Whilst the one at Clarke Quay boosts mainly a bar, light refreshments and a live band (not bad too), and the one at Club Street is like one of the most deliciously sinful places I’ve gone to (haha, got scantily clad women in cages… Dun ask!), Siem Reap 1 is quieter, and more suited for dining.

Siem Reap - indoors sitting

We had the following:
Chicken Wings - Crispy and not overly oily, done up with sesame seeds.
Vietnamese fried spring rolls – It’s really nice! Piping hot and changed my mind about spring rolls FOREVER! (only Viet ones) It’s like a thousand times better than Chinese spring rolls which I have hated since I learnt what they were.
Vietnamese rice paper rolls – contains lots of raw veggie, some mint, peanut sprinkling, and prawn. Might not be to everyone’s palate though. Comes with tangy sauce.

Green curry set – very much nicer than the green curry you get at other places, eg. Thai Express. It’s not as thick, but it’s got nice herb tones to it, and most importantly, it doesn’t make you feel nauseated cuz of overwhelming pandan leaf smell (like the one at Thai Express…)
Vermicelli with BBQ beef – rice noodles (like laksa, but slightly different consistency) with lots of shredded carrots, cucumber, raw veggies, mint leaves, beef (It’s so nice there, I’ll pick it over chicken anytime!) Comes with a special sauce, and you can mix the entire thing up!
Beef Ragout – Warm, thick beef stew (and the beef is really tender too), with carrots and potatoes… The rice was a tad soggy though… :S
Someone ate the Seafood fried rice… so boring manz, I didn’t attempt to try it.

And as for the drinks, I wouldn’t advise you to get anything from the Happy Hour menu… Either the drinks already suck, or they purposely diluted it cuz it’s Happy Hour… The Havana Club (which is supposed to be rum) mixed with Cola tasted like there was only Cola in it… While the St Remy (cognac/brandy) on the rocks tasted so bland that even a non-expert like me could barely taste the alcohol within! Other items on the drinks menu cost SGD~15-20.

Nevertheless, it’s a nice place to chill out with yr pals…

Visit the restaurant!

“When she scolds, the whole school knows!”

Yay, precisely! Remember how she would remain at the foyer with her eagle eyes watching all of us file away to our classes after morning assembly? She never misses anyone who steps on the grass! Lolz… the last time I went back to SC, the grass was still green… Bet no girl dares to step on it, cuz Miss Heng will holler from the foyer! SCARY!

Finally, after years of tireless speculation amongst my group of friends, we’ve found out Miss Sie’s age!!! Muahahahaha… It’s such a waste that she no longer teaches at SCGS, she reminds me a bit of Ms Heng… (read the incident where the girls tried to pull a prank on Miss Heng below)

In the article, it was mentioned that Miss Heng declined to be interviewd. Haha… Very typical. She’s almost never given any interviews or allowed any reporters within foot of any SC gal within the compound… Smart move, I say. You never know what the papers will do (or say)!

“What I want for the girls when they leave school is that they have confidence in themselves, that they are emotionally stable girls, happy that they’ve had a happy school life.”

I think she’s generally achieved this aim quite well… I AM pretty stable on most days (hahaha…)

The school emphasizes character development and good values and aims to produce ‘kim geks’ – a Peranakan-Hokkien metaphor for women who are treasures because they embody the virtues of filial piety, genitility, kindness, propriety and diligence.

Dopey - an embodiment of the virtues of filial piety, genitility, kindness, propriety and diligence.

An SCGS legend has it that one class who tried to play a trick on her received a taste of their own medicine instead.
The girls had planned to ambush her with a stink bomb in class. Miss Heng turned up, wrote a few history questions on the blackboard and said, without turning her head:
“I think I have a cold. Could you close the windows?”
After the windows were shut tight, she said: “Okay girls. Do the questions, and I’ll be back.”
She left, slammed the classroom door shut and left the pranksters with a lesson to remember.

Haha, yeah… Apparently some teachers in SCGS must have learnt from her very well, too well indeed… Can’t remember us having ever played a successful prank on any teacher.

But one thing not on the cards, contrary to a hot rumour in circulation, is marriage.
Mrs Lee said with a laugh: “That rumour follows her with every long holiday she takes.”

Aiya, give the lady a break. She’s got around 1000 mischievous, screaming girls to take care, where does she have the time… (and I tell you, even if she’s not married, she makes a better mother than so many modern mums I see these days!)

By Ho Ai Li, from the Straits Times Singapore

YOUNG girls cowered at the sight of her, pranksters knew better than to set off stink bombs in her class and a former Defence Minister once declared she had the better army.

In a black and white photo, Miss Rosalind Heng looks formidable in army uniform, beret and boots.

As a teacher in charge of the National Cadet Corps at the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (SCGS), she came in for praise when the late Defence Minister Lim Kim San inspected a drill put up by her girls in 1969.

He told then principal S.K. Tan: “You got a better army than I!”

(more…)

When I was in M1, I saw this group of imposing, non-smiling medical students in cool-looking white lab coats (then, coats were still allowed in the library), all wearing blue tags. I turned to my neighbour and askked: ‘Eh, blue name tag is what year arh?’ And my neighbour probably said something like, ‘Dunno leh, issit like Karate belt colours? So blue must be quite senior huh?’

In M2, when I saw the year 5’s, I thought, ‘Aiyah, still long way to go for me lah, better finish mugging this thick set of notes about bugs and worms and watnots… Don’t think so far ahead lah… Year two only, small fry… ‘

In M3, whenever the year 5’s passed me in a cloud of wisdom, I would stop, and stare at them from below their pedestal… My jaws would go slack, my eyes turn glassy and dream about when I could be so knowledgeable and cool like them.

When M4 came, medicine became a series of shitty days (and nites), patho dulled my senses and I looked at M5s with fear and awe in my eyes. I wonder, ‘Wow, when will I ever be like them?’ Cuz they were just so, well, they looked so ready for the exam! I was so impressed when my senior took a history of haematuria!!! haha…

Now when I think back, I realise, the cloud of wisdom that so often enveloped the M1-4s (as the final yrs walked by) could just be ’smoke’, cuz I do a lot of ’smoking’ these days… No wonder so hazy in my room. And I feel far from knowledgeable, prepared, cool and all that crap that the impressionable M3 me had believed… In fact, I just feel like a load of crap. Seriously. I AM SO NOT PREPARED FOR THE MBBS!!!

Fantastic plans for a christmas eve of mugging were ruined cuz I spent almost the entire day out. -_- But I guess it’s a good break. :)

Wasn’t too keen on lunch with my one of my Dad’s biz associates/friends (dunno how to refer to that guy) and his family. But didn’t really have a choice, turned out, it was quite an interesting lunch, with great eye candy involved, though the eye candy’s English a bit weird… and his Dad’s English was very accented. The Japs are terribly polite…

Got back and spent about two hours with AG… gabbling about blah blah… (cannot say cos must protect AG’s identity muahaha…) I thought I suffered a bit from residual auditory trauma deafness… cos I was using the wonky phone! Merry X’mas AG!

Then after that, decided after lots of cajoling to go to my cousin’s place… They offered to let me sew the turkey up, but I got there too late… Haha… maybe today can sew up the chicken at home. Met all those pple who used to play with me (or more like treat me like a toy) when I was a toddler… GRRR… lolz… think of my poor ‘abused’ childhood. haha… Something about being hung onto the window grills, left swinging on the gates and sent to fetch things… -_-

And then, it was a rather last minute decision to head down to M’s… I mean, it’s not in an area I know too well and quite off… But hey, my parents didn’t mind leh! WOOHOO… Thankfully, did not get very lost. Though I ended up at Y’s house first then M’s. haha… He managed to fend me off his collection with a fantastic, very organised and easier to understand book on the finer points of Spanish grammar. I think I’ll have to devote 30% of time after MBBS to mugging Spanish, 30% to Italian (all my nice Italian books I got haven’t been properly used yet) and 40% to playing. Anyway, I didn’t know even a third of the people there, but it was fun getting to know new people. :D

Merry X’mas again!

Tomorrow’s boxing day, and I give u all ample warning that I take it quite literally!

Thanks to the convenience of ’scheduled updates’, I should be raiding M’s Spanish collection around now, hopefully, unless I unfortunately get myself lost again. Hohoho…

Buon Natále
Boas Festas
Joyeux Noël
¡Feliz Navidad!

Nico’s cat - Yuki

No animals were harmed in this production.

OMG SHIT! WHY OH WHY IS ER-HEM MY TUTORRRRR! I’M SO SCARED OF —

Haha, so paiseh, this post is out-dated by eons… Apparently, I have so many posts under ‘drafts’ (gasps Sanz), that sometimes, I forget to publish them! Heh heh)

Two MS prowling the paeds ward stumbled upon an angelic looking gal sitting next to her bed… However, mummy and daddy weren’t around, and since they’d been given that bed no. as a good case for clerking history, we thought that we might try to guess at the diagnosis by asking the cute gal some simple questions… (so if it’s going to be interesting, we’ll be back to interview the parents…)

Me: Hi…. Amanda? (name changed for obvious purposes) Helloooo! How are you today? (that’s bright and chirpy me…)

Kidophobic MS: (silence…)

Kid: (eyes go wide… looks around cautiously…)

Me: Where’s mummy?

Kid: (points vaguely in the direction of the toilet/ward exit)

Me: Oh… We’re two medical students, hmmm nevermind (maybe she doesn’t know what medical students are, cuz she looks like she’s only 4yo…) Hey, you have a Barney balloon! You like barney?

Kid: Er… (eyes go so round they look like bottomless wells…)

Me: Can you sing the Barney song? Can sing for us? Hmmm issit something like…

Both MS with great gusto: I LOVE YOU, YOU LOVE ME… LA-LA-LA-LA-LALALAAAA lala…. La LA la la… lalalalalaaaa… Aiya, dunno how to sing the rest, can teach us?

Kid: (erm…. Mummy, Daddy, anyone? Rescue me from these two loonies in white coats?!?!)

Me: (nudges kidophobic MS and in undertones…) Hey, looks like she’s gonna start crying, let’s go before it’s too late… The other parents are staring liao… whoa…

Both MS shuffle off and disappear around the corner, probably to the great relief of that kid.

Anyway, just for interest (and in case we really need to sing this song to those kids…

I love you,
You love me,
We’re a happy family,
with a great big hug,
and a kiss from me to you,
Won’t you say you love me too!

I love you,
You love me,
We’re best friends like friends should be,
With a great big hug,
And a kiss from me to you,
Won’t you say you love me too!

Sing to the tune of ‘This old man…’

Studying in the library is pure tortureeee!

It’s really really cold, and your senses can get a bit dulled, you start to doperise (but you think, CANNOT SLEEP! Don’t wanna die in the cold like the little matchgirl!!!), your friends come poke you, talk to you, and occasionally, wave VCDS containing the complete series of Band of Brothers (or issit Gang) in front of you… Your shawl thingy doesn’t seem to work very well… It just barely keeps your fingers from frostbite… (tmr I might bring the Brazilian flag!)

Then you face this GERD-causing, headache-triggering, projectile vomiting-inducing thick textbook…

As you study, your body’s metabolism slows down, your core temperature dips, your start to get paraesthesiae of the fingers, you start staring at your watch, willing time to go faster…

Right opposite you, your friend falls asleep with his mouth wide open, letting out tiny snores…

But after all that pain, and mind-numbing cramming, you feel kind of good! Does that make you kind of masochistic? (in a non-sexual way)

Anyway, tomorrow I shall equip myself with some peanuts or papers rolled into small balls, can practice tabletop ‘basketball’, if the enticing scene presents itself again!