新天地 + M2 club

It’s the weekends! J Boy am I looking forward to weekends once work has started. Haha. I totally know what the TGIF feeling feels like now…HAHAHA! LOL!

Yeap, I lazily crawled out of bed and reluctantly washed myself up and I was about to make my usual breakfast of fresh milk with cornflakes when I remembered – IT’S SATURDAY! LOL.

We decided to make breakfast more special this time J On weekdays we needa rush off to work and thus we keep breakfast really simple, which consists of only 2 main actions – pouring fresh milk into a cup and pouring cornflakes into it. Haha.

This time, we made…

PIZZZAAAA :D

PIZZA :D Ok, we didn’t exactly make it. We’re all too lazy to do that. Haha! We bought it from the supermarket long ago. So, we didn’t make it, we simply…heated it up. HAHA!

Today’s itinerary is to eat with the rest at some dim-sum restaurant and from there decide what to do next. Haha.

So we got dressed up and we waited REAL long for our most well-trained soldier (NDU) in our house…HAHA! While waiting for him to beautify himself, Jamie decided to whip out her camera…haha

Chor Seng, Soon Hwee & Me :D

Jamie with her new white beret & I :) haha!

After like 10 photos, Zhi Sheng finally came out and we were like “NO WONDER…” HAHA! He came out with his hair fully styled…pushed backward in a really cool fashion. Haha.

Not many people suit his kinda hairstyle. Another friend of mine also has this hairstyle – Vernon Chow. HAHA! The push-back-hair hairstyle well suits them.

Here’s a side view of his hairstyle…LOL! And yes, we finally got moving…hahaha!

Zhi Sheng's hair...side view :D haha!

After much deliberation, we finally decided to walk to heed Zhi Sheng’s suggestion and go to Domino’s pizza to eat.

On the way there, we walked through a really pretty stretch of the sidewalk lined by trees and shrubs. And Jamie was like “this place sooo nice!! Let’s take picture!!” Haha. Her high-pitched cutesy voice makes all the difference. LOL!

F4. LOL!

Take 2 :D

Talking about Jamie’s cutesy soft high pitched voice…We were discussing about where to go during the 1 week CNY break at home. Everyone was throwing their opinions around and Jamie was also doing just that…BUT, her voice failed to cut through our barbaric babbling. HAHAHA!

So she was like *raises hand to speak* and shouting “EHHHH!”, “But I think we should see snow…EHHH!!” *raises hand to speak* HAHAHAHA!

I didn’t notice that until I turned to look at her. HAHAHA! She was indeed drowned out by our cantankerous chatter. LOL!

I almost ROFL at that scene. She was like, some cute primary school girl trying to make herself heard. Awwwww…LOL!

So yeah, that’s Jamie for you, for now. LOL. Anyway, where were we? OH, we were heading toward Domino’s pizza.

Guess what? After walking there, we found out, there’s no Domino’s pizza. Haha! Mr. NDU is effective on water, not on land…HAHAHAHA! Just kiddin :D

So we then walked aimlessly in search of food. While walking we passed by a shop that SELLS GUITARSSS!!! I was wanting to buy a guitar since the moment I set foot on this winter ground. Haha!

GUITARSSSS!! :D :D :D

The guitars sold there were around 800RMB which is around SGD$160. The guitars looked fine but I’m not willing to fork out more than a hundred bucks to buy a guitar here.

I searched 淘宝recently and actually found really good and cheap guitars :D I already ordered one acoustic guitar for around 278元 :D That’s like only, SGD$55.60!! There even cheaper ones though but I fear for its quality. Haha.

Yeah, pass the guitar shop was a really awesome restaurant. It’s awesome on hindsight. While we were standing and flipping its menu, we were actually hesitant. Haha. But the prices weren’t too bad and we’ve walked really far so we jumped in :D Haha.

Self-explanatory picture. Caption not needed. Haha!

The restaurant’s called 家常菜 which literally translates to “House common vegetables” HAHA! We were escorted by our waitress to the second floor which was completely empty! So we basically had the whole floor to ourselves! LOL!

The food there was GOOD. The price was also really good. We each paid around SGD$6 for restaurant-standard food and service! :D Here comes the food porn…as usual…haha!

Dishes served :)

The yellow dish is 蟹粉炒蛋 if I remember correctly. Haha! Some crab essence egg dish. It was SUPER SWEET -.-“ We didn’t finish that dish…LOL.

The next interesting dish is the Gong Bao Ji…the thing about this dish is, it isn’t written as 公宝鸡…but it was written as公爆鸡! LOL LOL! That means…EXPLODING CHICKEN!! HAHAHA! Anyway, the exploding chicken wasn’t too bad :D

But I think the best dish is the 麻婆豆腐. Yes, it’s SUPER OILY…that’s something that’ll never change. But the taste was good. It was neither too salty nor too spicy. It was just right :D

For the other dishes, I can’t remember what they are…LOL! I only remember our overall experience was really good. Food was good and the service was also good :D This is one place we wouldn't mind returning to J 

Me outside 家常菜 :)

Yup, after our hearty lunch, we proceeded to walk to the nearest MRT station…which is 花木路 metro station. On the way there, we saw a building that really resembles Vivocity!

Vivocity!! CHINA-STYLE. HAHA!

Am I homesick or does this building totally resemble Vivocity’s structural design? Haha! And yes, it’s also a shopping mall.

“Vivocity” is pretty near 花木路 station so we hopped on to proceed to the location of our dinner place which is at 新天地 :D (if I didn’t remember wrongly. LOL) Yes, it’s kinda early to dinner so we went there to 逛一逛first.

Walking around in 新天地 area :D

There was nothing much to shop there…there was nothing special and the prices were also nothing special. Haha. Nevertheless, we still walked around to look-see-look-see.

I didn’t buy anything…but Chor Seng did buy a pair of Uniqlo long sleeved shirt...I was tempted to buy as well but there really wasn’t much of any need so I chose to be thrifty :D HAHA! Ikr…I’m so disciplined…LOL!

Well I did spend money though…on FOOD :D

Cream puff & me :D

This cream puff thingy was awesome! I totally forgot the name of this awesome bite! I think it’s kinda like chewy junior…It’s a lil’ crispy puff with creamy custard inside.

Cream puff - China style and china price..haha!

It’s also super cheapppp…haha…The food here really is cheap la…Haha. Even the restaurants are cheap. SGD$50 can give a group of 5 a good and filling restaurant meal.

We then met up with the rest and walked down a very nice stretch of road in 新天地. It was littered with lights and restaurants J

Me at the stretch of restaurants :D

Candid version. LOL

Me, Shumin, Jamie, Chor Seng & Gareth :D

Take 2 :)

The Venture Boys...Yong Qiang, Me, Gareth and Kah Wei...less Chor Seng...his heart is always with someone else...hahaha!

From left: Serene, Ting Yi, Jia Min, Gareth, Kah Wei, Chor Seng, Soon Hwee, Chor Seng, Yong Qiang, Jamie, Me, Yu Fen, Shu Min & Zhi Sheng :D

All of us! :)

After much walking and spamming photos, we then headed to some Chinese dim sum restaurant to eat :D

It was nothing fantastic. The service was also nominal. The only thing is, we ate HA GAO! LOL. We didn’t eat it for like…since we left Singapore? Haha…So that was a sweet reminder…haha!

Ha Gao!! :D :D

Blur shot of us roomies :D Thanks ah Shumin! LOL!

Soon Hwee, Jamie, Zhi Sheng, Chor Seng and ME :D

Shumin & I...taken on her S3 front camera :D

Oh, and this is my favourite picture of the day…taken just outside the restaurant near some bridge :D Haha.

Me in Jamie's white beret :D

After our makan, guess where we went to? It’s a Saturday night…so we all went to club! :D haha. Yi Xiang then took the lead to bring us to the club.

After taking like 2 train stops and 15mins of walking, he realized he got the wrong address on his google map! LOL! He was really pissed with himself. HAHA!

I approached him and he was like “My bloody phone gave me the wrong address”. Haha! Officer pride in play now…LOL LOL! I was like “Chill la, no one complain about anything what.” LOL!

Nevertheless, there's a nice snake sculpture at where we hor-lan at...Plaza 66. Haha! Many of us took pic of it like it's some attraction...LOL!

Snake sculpture at where we got lost...haha!

There's also another really random LOL shop name along the 新天地 stretch of road. I saw it as we were backtracking our way back to the club.

Bo Concept!! HAHAHA!

Anyway, guess what? The club was actually RIGHT AT WHERE WE ATE!! I think it’s just beside the building of the restaurant we ate at! LOL LOL! So…yeah…we all backtracked and found our destination…Whew…LOL!

It’s my first time ever stepping into a club. LOL. It was entirely what I expected it to be…loud, BLARING and totally aimless music with the heavy smell of cigarettes.

But what I didn’t expect from the club is…they played ENGLISH SONGS! I thought we’d all be grooving away with their Chinese clubbing songs. HAHA!

After clubbing, my entire shirt and jeans smelled of cigarettes. It’s as if I’ve been smoking unceasingly for 3 to 4 hours! My clothes TOTALLY STINK!

Another thing about the club is…it’s EXPENSIVE. Ok, to my clubber friends, it’s cheap compared to Singapore… -.-“ wows..haha! One table booking with 2 bottles is around 4000RMB if I remember correctly…that’s around SGD$40/pax.

Anyway, the club we went to is called “M2”. The weird thing about this club is…There’s NO ENTRANCE FEE! Anyone can just walk in and walk out anytime they want! LOL.

And we did just that…we went in and realized there was no table available so we went out and re-org ourselves…when we got a table, we went out, AGAIN, to settle payment…haha!

After a while, we felt we should deposit our bags so we went out again to deposit our bags at the bag deposit counter…LOL LOL!

So the club is like a public toilet…you can go in and out for as many times as you want and whenever you want…haha!

The bad thing about the club is…IT’S SO BLOODY SQUEEZY!! We were basically being squeezed around. LOL! And their dance floor also has tables and chairs for paying customers and they are barricaded with queue poles -.-“

Because of that, we keep tripping over the base of the queue poles or bumping into their huge sofa chairs and all. This makes the dance floor even SQUEEZIER  -.-“ Haha…

Here are 2 photo attempts in the club…Haha! Try to find the disco ball in the picture…LOL

The clubbing scene...LOL

Take 2 :D

The interesting thing about the club is, every 30minutes, they’ll have an item. Some black guy with a few dancers will go up and try to hype everyone up by singing and dancing vulgarly.

They also have many scantily clad table-top dancers scattered all across the club dancing seductively to the heavy music. Here’s a pic I managed to sneak out…haha

The table-top dancer...like literally. LOL!

If you’re wondering why the picture must be “sneaked” out…it’s because they don’t allow you to take pictures. I have no idea why.

I tried to take the picture earlier with my handphone but the staff stopped me. Every table had a “waiter” attached to it so there are like tons of them all over waiting to stop you from taking photo of the dancers and singers. The shot above was taken when he wasn’t around :D LOL!

At the dance floor, Wei Jiat suddenly had his “high-mode” turned on and he began jumping around and throwing his arms alternatingly in the air…LOL! He was smiling and laughing as he did that…LOL!

Wei Jiat is usually collected and quiet, but not this time…HAHA! I guess a few cups changed his behavior…HAHA!

The MOST interesting part of my whole clubbing experience? There was this SUPER TIPSY, inebriated lady that couldn’t even keep balance. Her boyfriend hooked one of her arm.

Despite his arm-hooking efforts, she still fell face front onto me like…*SMACKS* My reaction? I caught her arm to prevent her from falling.

Then her boyfriend (with his arm still hooked around hers) was like…*Walks over* and gave me a series of nasty pats on my back with the “What-do-you-think-you’re-doing” face while saying “好了好了…”

I was like “Ohh…” and walked away. LOL. He should’ve thanked me for sacrificing my hands to catch his girlfriend man…HAHAHA! LOL!

Yeah, it was an interesting 4 hour experience altogether but I wasn’t too ill-prepared for it though. I knew it would turn out something like that.

I don’t understand why people would pay so much to drink and spoil their livers and to dance so many hours away to senseless songs and meaningless beats. Sadly, it’s what most people are giving their free time to.

The loud music is kinda like Heart of God church’s worship session though. HAHA! Ok, our worship sessions in church are relatively softer compared to the club.

The difference is SO SIGNIFICANT. The club’s songs simply bring disillusionment and it just makes you gesticulate wildly to their dirty beat.

In church, the songs bring so much faith, so much hope that sometimes my eyes and heart just can’t contain it and it simply overflows. Church simply reminds me that with God, there is so much more to live for in life.

I walked out of the club smelling like a chain smoker and feeling totally drained and empty. I felt like I wasted my life there.

For church, I always walk out of it with new hope and a new love…I walk out reminded that I’m here to love the many broken people around me. I know that whatever I received in church will overflow out of my life and into others’. J

In spite of the level of depraved hedonism in the club, I still found myself praying “Lord, these are your people…You love them…”

As I was praying I remembered watching this documentary called “Father of Lights” where 2-3 Christians went into a club to share the gospel and amazingly, people were saved!

Ok, random spirituality aside…hahaha! Here’s the rest of the pictures we took. Didn’t take much pictures during clubbing…haha.

Right after clubbing...haha

Gareth & I right outside the club :D

We left the club around 2am+. It closes at 4am if I didn’t remember wrongly. So yup, that was a day well spent.

Cabbed back and when we stepped into the house, Chor Seng was like “WHOA! 你们的烟味很重! DAMMM SMELLY!!”

And we couldn’t even tell. LOL. That’s how bad it is. When I sniffed my jeans and shirt, then did I realize how bad it was. Haha

So yeah, had a fun time with all of them J And through this outing, I got to know Serene, Yu Fen and Ting Yi. Ting Yi was actually with her mum throughout! LOL.

Her mum was really cute. When I asked about Ting Yi and about her, she’ll go on rattling about Ting Yi’s history and Ting Yi will be like “Mum, don’t need to tell people my entire history”…HAHA!

Ting Yi’s a full-fledged jiak kan tang girl. HAHA! When she opened her mouth, you can tell from her command of English that Chinese was a pretty foreign language to her. LOL!

She can speak la…but her English is really power. LOL! Combined with her rich alto voice, the kan tang deal is sealed. HAHA!

Yu Fen is the other extreme, she speaks like perfect mandarin! Her 口音and 音调真的非常标准! I think her spoken chinese puts every chinaman to shame. LOL!

The locals here like to eat up and garble up their words. But when you here Yu Fen speak, the pure-ness and exactness of each word’s pronunciation simply makes you feel unworthy to converse with her in mandarin. HAHA!

And there’s also Serene. She’s the one with the husky tone of voice. Haha! She’s also a very nice and ready-to-go girl. Haha! She’s also really easy to talk to :D You don’t have to do all the talking, she’ll do 50% of it. LOL!

Lastly, I also got to know Jia Min better. Haha! I already know her but throughout this outing, I talked to her a fair bit more than the rest.

She’s a really nice and quiet girl on the outside…but when you get to know her, I think she’s actually a really bubbly and spontaneous kinda person. HAHA!

I discovered that she’s an IVP SWIMMER!!! *Kangaroo kena spotlight* HAHAHA! She was like “Jonavan, you also hall 6 one ah?” and from there I asked her how she managed to stay in hall and that’s when I discovered this secret. LOL!

She also challenged me “I sure swim faster than you one la…we can always challenge” in her alto-soprano vocal ranged voice. Haha! LOL LOL!

Oh and…I also confirmed that Wei Jiat is a Christian J Haha! He’s in some Baptist church I think. Haha. But yeah, glad to know we have another one on our team :D

Yupyup, it was an interesting day indeed. :D