Jewellery Fabrication Assessment - 12 Nov 2007

I did not realise that making a piece of jewellery takes so much time. It was rather tough for me as I had never done any sort of technical stuff before. Learning how to saw, hammer, polish, filing, soldering etc was really an eye opener for me. Especially for sawing, my whole arm were aching. Some jewellery items that I had made (with a lot of help from my instructor).

A bezel to put the 'cat's eye' stone.


A seahorse pendant. Wah, so much work - sawing, hammering, filing, polishing.


My favourite piece is the square ring with the dome on top filled with sprays of beads.


During our 1st assessment. Everybody taking a look at each other's work before the assessment.


Desmond showing us the techniques.


At the polishing machine next to instructor Desmond.

Jewellery Fabrication Class

Front:Daphne, Instructor Desmond Chin, Chai
Back:Adlina, Ginny, Nisha, Kelvin, Donna, Joyce, Pauline, Nicholas

Marina 1 degree 15, Sentosa - 04 Nov 2007

Hubby and I got invited by an associate to visit his house-boat at the marina at Sentosa.
The house-boat looks small from the outside but it is actually rather spacious inside.
Owner said that it is especially beautiful at night and also it is so quiet and peacful.

The upper deck :
Click to see video :



The lower deck :
Click to see video :

Rotary Jewelry Design Competition

Had enrolled at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) to do part-time jewellery design since June'07 and will be ending in November'07. It's twice a week for 3hrs - one class focusing on the technical aspects of making jewellery items and the other class on idea development and drawing it out.

I had decided to take part in the Rotary Jewelry Design Competition which is organised yearly by the Rotary Club of S'pore East.

It is a competition for students to apply their design skills. Students from Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippine and Singapore will be competing in it.
The most outstanding design will be selected and made into jewelries by Larry Jewellery and marketed alongside with other jewelries of leading jewelry retailers.
If the pieces are sold, part of the sales will be offered to the winner.
Students were given the requirements of the designs and for this year the theme was "The Modern Man".

Not much colour here, allowed to use white and black gold only.

French Apple Tart - 09 Sept 2007

My couple of attempts to make the French Apple Tart which I had tasted before in France.
Managed to get the top right but I still couldn't whisk up the right texture and consistency of the fillings.
Will try again one day - hey, a lot of work to do this ok.

Indian Dance - 08 Sep 2007

Attended my ex-neighbours daughter's wedding. It was a buffet styled Indian food. The emcee was very funny and the Indian fun dance was absolutely hilarious.

Click to see video :

DragonFruit Farm, Malaysia

21 July 2007

Hubby and I went for a short trip to Kuala Lumpur.

We were going to a place on the outskirt of KL and came across this dragonfruit farm.
We tasted one first before deciding to buy or not and boy, were they sweet! I am not a 'fruit' person but these fruits were really really sweet.
I've tasted the ones that hubby had bought at the supermarket here in S'pore and they were so bland - they were from Vietnam - so when I saw some from Malaysia thinking that it will be just as sweet - wrong, it was bland too. So I think that maybe, the fruits are being plucked even before they are ripe in order for them to be just nice and ripened when it reaches our shore - conclusion is that the fruits are not being allowed to ripen and sweetened naturally before they are being plucked.


I didn't know that dragon fruit trees look like this.
Looks like a stump with cactus growing on top.


Should have bought more!

Aunt Shirley's Birthday Celebration in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

07 April 2007

My usual yearly trip up to KL with my gal fren SY to attend her Aunt Shirley's birthday celebration. Knew SY's aunt's family for a long time and they have always treated me like their close relatives even though I'm not.

Aunt Shirley with her family.


My long time buddy.


SY with her mom.

Nephew's Sports Hits at Bishan Stadium

22 March 2007

Went for my nephew's sport hits in the morning

Felt so sorry for all the runners. They were told that they cannot makan cos cannot run on a full stomach. So the young runners waited for their turn........... By the time my nephew's turn was up, it was around 4pm already! He only got to munch on some bananas.

Waiting....Still waiting.........


Dad looks cool.


Nephew in front waiting to be passed the baton...


Hands up to receive...


Got it!


Let's GO!!!!!


They got one of the best times - very good considering it was among all the primary schools in Singapore.

Cameron Highland, Malaysia

20 - 22 February 2007

Got invited by one of our fren to visit her relatives up in Cameron Highlands during the Chinese New Year week.

Outside fren's relative's house.
Vegetables everywhere.
We had steam-boat in the evening with plenty of vegetables.
Fresh veggies just plucked from outside their house. It was really very sweet and delicious. What a difference being freshly plucked.

The view outside the house.


Fresh peppers!




Plucking fresh veggies!


Fresh veggies delivery.



Cameron's corn are the sweetest I've ever tasted!
Andrew and I bought some and we ate it right there and then.
No need to cook it, it was so sweeet.




I enjoyed the farm part plucking my own veggies which was really something for a city gal like me.

Very interesting ride at nite along the mountain roads of Cameron - we saw the farms all lighted up! It was so, so bright.
Click below to see the brightly lit farms :


Then we came across some people lighting fire-works as this was during the Chinese New Year period.
Click to see the Fire-Works :

SY's Mom's Birthday - 15 Feb 2007

SY's mom blowing out the candle.
SY's dad, sister and aunt looking on.

Lime Flea Market - 10 Feb 2007

SK and her friends got together to sell off their 2nd hand items at the Lime Flea Market which is opposite Orchard Cineleisure.


Phew, it was so hot even under the covers.

Double Birthdays - Dec 2006

The group had an early birthday celebration for CC and I.

Celebrating at Orchard Cineleisure.

Asian Civilisation Museum

30 Nov 2006

Saw my nephew reading a book one day. I asked him what he's reading and he was reading a book on the artefacts in the ASM.
Hmm... rather unusual for a kid to like knowing about old stuff.

My nephew and I share some similarities - like we like to eat sotong, we like going to museums, at one time when he was very young, the way we ran were similar too-with both our arm flailing around - so funny.

With my nephew.


Lunch at Boat Quay after visiting the Asian Civilisation Museum.

Sentosa - 15 Nov 2006

A day at Sentosa with SK and her hubby SW.




Taking the sky lift to get to the Luge ride venue.




Ah Kin's look of fear...


Luge Ride



Weeeee........ so fun!!!

LY's Birthday - 14 Oct 2006

Celebrated LY's birthday at a KTV.

KTV package includes lunch


Went to take neo-prints




Tea time at Paragon


Taken at another time - more neo-print