Outfit of the day (lunch with mum)

Just for fun , I think I shall occasionally put up my #ootd.

So here's the one for today's afternoon date with mum at Arab St .

Pardon the dusty mirror!

 Inner tee : Angsana Mall JB

 Top: Sleeveless tunic from H &M, KL 

Bottom: Light blue jeggings from Uniqlo 

Bracelets: Louvisa @ KL and DIVA 

Watch: DKNY 

Shoes: Crocs Pink wedge sandals 

Clutch bag: Kate Spade
Shawl: Pashmina shawl , bday prezzie from an aunt 

I am not a pashmina lover. However soft they all claim to be , I find it difficult to wrap them around my head without feeling all hot and bulky. I have a few pashminas given by people and they have been nestling nicely in the wardrobe. 

Until I watched the hijab tutorial by Adlina Anis! She made it seem so easy that I just had to try it out! And I succeeded on my first attempt (hence, this #ootd)!

I recently went to her site adlinaanisselections.com and really without meaning to, purchased 4 shawls without thinking much! Hahhahaa...... They have since arrived and I have tried out 2 of them. Love them !

I shall see about purchasing more next month. For now, no more shopping because I really shopped like crazy this April! 

The BIG SPELL Finals!

While most people were probably still asleep or just having a lazy breakfast last Saturday morning, I was up and about to witness one of the most exciting events - the BIG SPELL Finals!

It was held at Raffles City Convention City and was supposed to start at 10am. I was running a little late as I had a late night the night before .... finally reached the registration booth at 9:55am . Phew! Still on time!

One of the organizers for the Big Spell 2013.

#OOTD
Black Inner: Honey & Bee
Bottom: Jeggings from Uniqlo
Peplum Top: Small store in Tampines Mall
Shawl: Adlinaanisselections.com
watch: GUESS
Shoes: Wedges from Tory BUrch 

 I did not want to miss anything so I kept urging my cousin who came with me to hurry. Just outside the ballroom , we saw 10 contestants battling it out at the digital spelling competition - fighting for the top 3 positions. They were competing in an online spelling game, just like the one I described previously.

 I don't know about you but I like to see kids in full concentration - whether while studying, playing games or competing, in this case. The way their tiny faces scrunched up with their eyes on 100% focus mode is just very endearing.... like this boy here, who just finished his final round of digital spelling...

Tan Chee Heng said after the game," It was easy at first but it got difficult

when I couldn't make out between the British and

American pronunciations."

We soon stepped into the ballroom which was meticulously set up for the big finals.

 Here are the contestants for the finals. They have gone through the preliminary rounds earlier on and out of the initial 1400, 31 of them are here for the final showdown!

Not showing any sign of jitters, they were busy chatting with one another

while getting some last minute prep talks from their parents and teachers on the side lines.

The event started on time, with speeches given by the VIPS. In his opening address, Mr Warren Fernandez, editor of The Straits Times, highlighted that it is very important to 'spell it right' as this promotes reading, enhances writing and thus, leading to a greater understanding to what is happening around the world.

Tan Sri Azlan Zainol, Chairman of RHB Banking Group, gave a light-hearted speech that brought some of the audience into stitches. Quite a funny and entertaining speech, I must say.

Any idea what is the longest word in the English dictionary?

                                      Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

  

Definition: to mean a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust, causing inflammation in the lungs.

  

Now , we know! :)

Tan Sri Azlan Zainol.

I was already hitting my head for not bringing my extra camera lens so I had to make do with this.

And soon , the battle began!

I do not know how the students could be so calm on stage and spelling it out. I, as the audience, was on the edge of my seat almost half the time. I could feel the anxiety and adrenaline rush although I wasn't contesting ...neither was I the parent nor teacher of any of them. It was just way too exciting !

So how to be a good speller?

  

It is not just merely memorising lists of hundreds of words. There are actually skills to master and to help one to figure out the spelling of unfamiliar words. Contestant were allowed to ask the following questions to aid them in the spelling of the words:

• Definition of the word
• Part of speech (Is the word a noun, verb , adverb?)
• Language of Origin (yes, it actually helps to know if the word is of Latin or Greek origin. There is a way to identify the way the word is spelled)
• Root word
• Alternative pronunciation (if any)

These boys from Rosyth Primary were diligently attempting to spell and write down the words 
given to each contestant. I asked one of them if their teacher wanted to check their lists later 
and his response was, " Oh...this is to help next year's batch to learn the difficult words."
Wow, such camaraderie! Impressive!

The first few rounds went by pretty smoothly with very few students getting the 'boot out'. However as time passed by, we saw more and more leaving the stage as the words got more and more difficult. I even saw a couple of them breaking down at the side , with their mum / teacher consoling them. You shouldn't feel sad, ok? Many adults probably would not even last as long as you :)

Errr....ok, a bit of camwhoring time please .

After about two hours, we finally reached the Final Round where we had our top 3 contestants left on stage !

 Our Big Spell Champion is none other than Asvin Sivakumar, from Anglo Chinese School!!!!!

His winning word was "pulchritudinous". Hands up if you know what it means!

(Definition: physically beautiful - of Latin origin) 


I stayed and watched till the end and I was, honestly, rooting for him from round 5 onwards. It was clear that this young boy has tons of determination and he really knew his stuff. He deserves this win, definitely.

The winner who is now $5000 richer :P 

It was really a great Saturday morning/afternoon spent. I must say that I hope to see more of such events in future - perhaps, the organizers may want to consider having one for secondary school students. That would be even more mind-boggling and spell-binding !



Thank you omy.sg for making my Saturday morning a fulfilling one :)

 



SYF 2013 - Distinction!

One reason why I have been horribly busy and lack rest is the SYF.

It is our second attempt at SYF and the instructor and I decided last year that we would be trying out Malay Contemporary dance. 

It definitely has been a tough  journey for the students - teaching them the true meanings of commitment , discipline and endurance. It was not easy for the teachers either. There were hiccups along the way and that included handling students breaking down , misunderstandings between them etc. 

But I am really glad that over the 4 years of the dance club, we have managed to instill the right values in almost all of them so problems were minimal.

The last week leading up to the event was really intense and on the day itself, I think everyone's heart could not stop beating fast. There was so much expectation from everyone else but more importantly , every student had their own expectation and I just had to pray and pray that no one would be disappointed and that their hard work would reap results!

They had to report at 7:30 am and gosh , everyone looked so tired! Thus, warm up exercise was intensified so that they would wake up!

What made the whole thing even more nerve-wrecking was that one of the girls had a fall the day before and couldn't  go on her knees. So that very morning itself, my instructor had to change their positions and took her out from some scenes.

Lining up to be made up!

Before the performance.....

Hehe.....they were supposed to have that angsty look for the dance.

Finally going in...... 

After an energetic and impressive performance, it was time to chill!

Results came up 2 days later and omg, I was so nervous for them ..... I couldn't focus on a lot of things because of the anxiety! Hahaha.....

Imagine the joy when our HOD announced they received DISTINCTION (GOLD if referring to previous SYF term) for their performance....priceless. Really priceless. 

These kids really deserve that recognition for all their sweat , hard work and scoldings received for 4 whole months. I hope this will be a great motivation to spur them to put in their best in whatever and anything that they do. 

Till the next SYF in 2015 - it has truly been a wonderful journey :) 

REVIEW: Changi Village Hotel - thumbs up!

Gosh, my fingers have been itching to blog! Most unfortunately, I am almost dead by the time I reach home from work every day.

For the past 2 weeks, I have not been able to do anything after dinner . My routine would be to try finish up my book while waiting for the 9pm show, on the couch. Once the show starts, I would fall asleep and wake again every now and then ...and finally, sleep through the ending. It has happened so many times that I have lost count!

But I wanna talk about my staycation at Changi Village Hotel. It was one of the nicest things I have ever done because the place is simple yet comfy, and I really caught up on my lost hours of sleep and rest !

Anyway, we checked in after our visit to USS with the family. That was really late though - we checked in at about 10pm. Kinda wasted half a day but we had all the time to catch up later, as you will 'see'!

The first thing I do whenever I check into the hotel is to arrange my toiletries in the bathroom and then spend about 5 - 10 minutes admiring them. Does any of you ladies do the same thing? I am pretty sure I am not the only one.

We didn't do much the whole of Sunday morning besides lying in bed and watching the TV. It did not help that it was raining pretty heavily outside. However, my tummy was already growling by 12 noon and we had to get out of the cosy room to get food.

One reason why we picked Changi Village Hotel was that there are many HALAL easteries surrounding it. We went to our favourite 89.7 and had, in my opinion, one of the best meals of my life!

Ok, maybe it was just because I was hungry but still.............

Did I manage to make you salivate? The prices are very reasonable as well, better than what you get at Simpang Bedok.

The initial plan was to get on the bus and go to Downtown East to catch a movie after that but the rain so heavy that we had to cancel that. If you have ever been to Changi Village, there are quite a number of shops selling very "old school" stuff and knick-knacks at very cheap prices. We spent quite some time exploring the shops before retreating back to the hotel to check out its other facilities.




I was pretty impressed with the intricate designs of the washrooms on the same level as the pool (level 8).





If you stay on the Executive Level, u can hang out at this lounge for ur free cocktails and other finger food / desserts. 

We spent quite some time exploring the hotel , from the outdoor garden to the gym and sauna....and the SPA! We went for SPA treatments here last December on my birthday (courtesy of best friend) and it was really, really good! This is definitely a well-equipped hotel and everything was functioning well and carefully taken care of.

THE GYM 

Sauna

I had checked out the website earlier and it is stated that this is a 3-star hotel. But the services and facilities surpassed our expectations of a 3-star hotel! Singapore's hotels really got standard, huh?  :P

We didn't do much during the staycation . We did go to the nearby beach at night after dinner but it was way too cold that I shivered the whole way back . Hopeless case when it comes to chilly weather.

Changi Village Hotel is, overall, a very cosy place to chill and relax. It cost us about $300 for two nights AND we got a one night free stay at another hotel of their branch. We can only redeem the free night after July and I am planning for another staycation during the September school holidays *rub hands gleefully*...cannot wait!