Favorite Ice cream shop in Sg - Gelateria Italia

My favorite ice cream shop in Singapore used to be Holland Village's Island Creamery, but after eating ice cream from this shop, I really can't make up my own mind!

Gelateria Italia! I'm guessing it's a worldwide franchise. Singapore has a number of branches- Vivo, Dhoby Ghaut, Ion, and so on. This particular one is in Vivo. 

It's in basement area near MRT and it's towards the food court side, as far as I can remember it correctly.

Look at these babes!

This is by far my favorite flavor- the one that I fell in love with at the first taste, and the one that I still love fervently: Moscato wine. I bet it's alcoholic, but even though I don't drink alcohol, it's very mild. Not much taste of Wine.

These are also not bad. Quite good!

If you like something sour, go for this! It was the shop keeper's favorite :)

Salted caramel is also lovely!

This guy was so sweet!!

Price is not cheap. It's the smallest size Piccolo, which is about $5.40. But the portion is not so small, even though it looks a bit small here.

Just random photo on the way to bus stop. It looks nostalgic with the red bike. 

Windy day with Moscato Wine. What can be better? :)




 

My Dream Job (Can I please work like this?!)

I was filling out this questionnaire from school website about job prospect and stuff, that promised to pay $10 grocery shop voucher upon completion. I mean, come on, who wouldn't want to take it! 

I was doing this endless survey for about 20 minutes? or so I felt, and I came to this open-ended question section.

Basically it asked me to describe what kind of work life I visualize of myself. At first, this question seemed rather daunting. I didn't even know specifically what I would want to be, and what kind of job would suit me. But after a while, I could write down few things, and it was:

" I am a successful animal assisted therapist who handles children's psychopathology. I have flexible timetable, so I don't work at all in the morning. My work starts from 2pm after lazy breakfast. I work only four days a week, and sometimes I can take the whole two months off. I also make bags by painting on them, and make things with sewing machine such as cushion, curtain, pillow case, pencil case and so on. I sell the surplus ones on weekend every other week. It gives me decent pay because I have become famous around the town and people are always queuing to buy my products. My goods are sold out in 1 hour and I earn $1000 every other week from these goods sales. 

My life is good, and I'm very satisfied with my work life. "

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After I showed this to my bf, he was laughing so hard. And I laughed hard too, for some reasons. 

I mean honestly, even on this, I am not entirely sure whether I want to become a therapist. I want to have a job that lets me have a really free life. Certainly I don't want to wake up at 7am to go to work. And I want a job that would let me go around in different countries. More specifically I'm thinking I want to live in different places every 5 years. How beautiful is that? Just choosing the next spot, leaving everything behind for the better or worse! Feeling this and that in different places I always wanted to live in. I mean, it's just because I don't really like travelling somewhere for a week. I don't feel anything. To me, what really matters is having a glimpse of life there. How it feels to actually wake up everyday there, spend the whole day there for a few months to years.

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So for my job to be really free, I kind of narrowed it down to work related to internet. However, the downside to that is, I don't really like computer that much. I just don't feel that good sitting in front of the computer. (I do it, yes, but it's just that it doesn't make me feel good after I've done it.)

So I wonder what I can do. 

I asked my bf about it, about calling, and whether I should actively search for my calling or just live a life without thinking much into it, and let it come when it shall come. 

He answered: 'It's Calling. You listen to it.'

Sounds pretty right to me. And feels pretty good too! At least I get a short term relief from searching it. 


How about you? What is your dream job?

NUS Deck recommendation!

As a Decker, this is very personal, maybe even biased review of Deck, the arts canteen in NUS.

My favorite favorite favorite favorite shop in Deck. Maybe second favorite is the Indonesian shop upstairs. Their seafood satay is yum!

I eat here almost everyday, and so far I haven't gotten sick of it!

My favorite dish: potato. So good!

My favorite dish: lady finger. Also finger licking good!

My favorite dish: spinach. Also so yum!

And omg, this salad is the best thing ever! But it finishes really quite quickly. Try to be there before 2.

This costs $1.90. Can you believe it?!?!

Normally the dishes will be on the compartment, but instead of getting gravy, I prefer just eating them this way ;)

My favorite seat that gets most sunshine and looks out to sky and trees. But be careful of bird poops sometimes!

And! of course, I looove this fruit juice shop! Everything's good here. I used to eat avocado milkshake, raspberry shake, and so on. But after I found out they use lots of syrup I switched. I mean, it's alright. Many people still love them, but it's just that I don't want it.

My favorite thesedays is apple carrot juice, no ice, take away. It costs $2.10. (With ice it's around $1.50.) And it's been my favorite for about one year? Though some people hate the idea of drinking carrot juice, apple carrot is pretty good. It's healthier this way too, for some reasons I forgot.

It comes out this way. That's my juice! > < Love this shop!





So because of these two shops, deck is my favorite! Anyways, even if it were not, I wouldn't have any choice to go to other canteens :(

Marche Vivo: Best Crepe!

Finally I will introduce my FAVORITE restaurant in Vivo city, harbourfront, Singapore: MARCHE!!!! 

Feel like I have to moooh

Seriously, after having had my first Crepe here, it's the best thing ever. I loooove it! 

It's in Harbourfront, the last station of Circle line. From Kent Ridge MRT, it takes about 20 minutes to get there. Pretty convenient.

This is the map of Marche. It's on the top floor of Vivo city.  

Already drooling! 

This is the interior. I wanted to take more proper photos, but one of the workers there abruptly stopped me in not such a pleasant manner. Service is not superb here. That's one disappointing part, but apart from that it tastes so yum! 

Juice here is yum! 

The one on the left end is the savory crepe. It's different from sweet crepe next to juice, so beware!

There are add-on toppings like chicken, salmon, mushroom and so on. But I love the vegetable one the most, and that's even free! Vegetable one has zucchini, paprika, brinjal and so on, and it tastes so yum! > <

So this is what you get. One thing to beware is it gets cold really quickly so make sure you it is quick enough if you want hotter food.

Just Look at this beautiful yum creature (?)!!!
I would say portion is just enough for one person.  Personally I cut it with knife and fork, pour yellow sauce on top slightly, and put it inside my mouth with spoon. Just love this food!

They also have Lunch express menu which is just sooo worth it! I think it's from 11am - 3pm on weekdays. Last time I had Paella with free drink. It was freaking cheap and so yum!! Definitely worth it! 

I also recommend pizza (I had vegetarian one and it was so good! Free flow basil!). Personally I am not a big fan of rosti but it also seems popular. For dessert, wahae was alright.

Such cozy and pretty place. Very comfy air and old cottage-like. Charming!

Anyways love this place sooo much! Decent price(almost everything below 20), decent food! Lovely lovely place in Vivo!

Total Recall the Experience Machine

I recently watched the popular movie 'Total Recall' on the plane, and I was pretty amused.

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I can't remember most part of the story, but the part where his memory was replaced (which is the main point of the whole movie). The reason why I found it fascinating is because it reminded me of the quite famous philosophical thought-experiment 'Experience Machine'.

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So what is experience machine? 

If I'm recalling the facts correctly, it is a machine that you can step inside at your own will and it will create all the happy moments- artificial happy moments. The catch is once you are in, you totally forget that you are inside the machine, and that in fact, all those people that you meet, all the things that you think are happening in your life, are mere digital bytes and particles. They do not exist any where in actual world, but only in their head. They also cannot get out once they are in. 


And I can still remember in the lecture, prof asked people to raise their hands if they are willing to step inside this machine. I was one of the few who did, and I must say I was surprised as much as they must have been surprised. 

The people who were not willing to get inside, basically said, it's because those things are not real. Thus, they don't mean anything. 

However, I wondered, and I still wonder, then, what is real, and what is truth?

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For the person who is inside the machine, the reality is no longer the self that's lying down in the machine; the reality is their happy fun life they are enjoying. And there will be no way to find out that actually it's all fake. 

Then, isn't that the truth as long as that's what they believe in?



Coincidentally, at that time I was also experiencing one of the toughest lows in my life. So honestly, I was even a bit disappointed to realize that experience machine actually does not exist. 

Now I don't wish for experience machine or anything like that in particular, but really.. Is it that horrible to escape from the dreadful life and step into sweet future? Is it that much of a coward? I mean, is the happiness NOT WORTH the cowardice? 

I know, theoretically people will say truth is worth more than fake happiness. But how about in real life? Is it still? 

I wonder.

Control me! Me!

Ever feel like you are not the one controlling yourself?

Rest assured.

You are NOT the only one who has trouble being in control of yourself!

I know, theoretically it sounds more than ridiculous that you are not in control of yourself, even though you are yourself's! However, in practice, we know this is the case for most of the people around us (if you feel too shy to include yourself, let's put it this way).

http://www.spring.org.uk/images/selfcontrol2.jpg

But after reading this post today, you will learn that it's not really fair to blame yourself after having eaten two family size pizzas, played tetris for seven hours straight, or slept the whole day without doing anything.

- Well, maybe that is a bit too much. But anyways, let me explain why you have totally lost control of yourself and did something you would usually not.

It's because of the nature of our SELF-CONTROL!

Yes, by right, we were born to lose control! But only after you've depleted the resource, the control resource. 

I was totally fascinated with this concept since I encountered it in lecture because it could explain my sometimes (are you sure?) odd behavior of just totally letting it go and spending the time as the most loose person on earth. 

Really interesting thing is that, self-control is, in fact, supposed to be depleted when it's been exhausted. So it's only very natural to be out of control after having finished your control fruits in your control basket, right?

But just because it's a consumable energy, don't be so disappointed. It's not the end of the story.
Encouraging side is that you can train it just like a your muscle. Or your train. Or lame lime light lemon? So the more you consciously try to prolong the attention span, you will succeed, eventually.



 So here are some of my tips in dealing with self-control:

1. Give your self sufficient break in between work, or study or whatever that requires your deep focus and attention so that you can somewhat restore it to meet the spending.

2. Try focusing a little longer every time. Don't start with ambition. Start with maybe, focusing really hard for 15 minutes. And then, take a rest for say, 20 minutes. And continue it until you reach 45 minutes work and 15 minutes studying ratio. 

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So I hope after having read this post, you were comforted and encouraged to control your control! However, on my side, I must have used too much focus writing this entry. I feel disgusted to follow those very tips I wrote up there. 

Anyways, at least good luck to you guys!