Uninterestingly serious

My friend was dead right on the part that i was uninterestingly serious in the way i live.

Of cos i am aware of that, my seriousness, my dull presence....its not the first time ppl got irritated or uncomfortable becos of my stagnant nature.

I had lived for the better part of my 30 years always considering consequences before taking actions. Although I didn't make all the right choices and my personal life couldn't turn out the way i had hoped it to be, but at the very least, ppl i care abt and dependant on me nvr got hurt, and i nvr slack on my commitments to them. Given the chance to relive my entire life under the same consequences, i would still choose others over myself, i would still make the same decisions in life, i would still become the present me.


At this point, I am still working hard at maintaining my commitments, i am still trying hard to be a person which i can better assimilate into this society, i am still working towards the life i had always hoped for...... all these, without causing hurt or discomfort for others. I have no idea how life for me would turn out, but one thing for sure, while i still breathe, i ain't gonna give up..... if i had totally given up, i wouldn't be arnd writing this post.

Complain complain

Nah, i just need someone to talk with.

Life goes on.....

As much as it seems, I don't think i am actually shutting myself out. Maybe i am simply living life the way it probably best suits a character like mine. Maybe somewhere down the road, something else might happen in my life that would change me yet again in certain ways, be it good or bad. In any case, the intent is good, since its trying to make myself seems happy, even if it seems like a illusion sometimes.

Coffee spots

** Update 10th Mar 2012 **

It seems that i am focusing more on Starbucks than other similar outlets, the reason being that Starbucks is more friendly towards customers with lifestyle gadgets such as laptops and tablets due to their generosity with power points, not to mention that they serve better food and beverage :)

People who know me probably knows i have this habit of visiting cafes during the spare time in my weekends. The idea of making a review on the cafes just dropped onto me and so here i am writing this post. I expect to update this post quite often, will let Google bots do the rest of the job.

If you want to check back this post now and then, just bookmark this page.
http://paranormalz.blogspot.com/2012/01/singapore-cafes.html

Recommendation Meter:
1) This place is crap..... enough said
2) kopi branch, that's about it.
3) Acceptable, but would look out for others.
4) Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.
5) Fantastic! What else can i say?

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

• West Mall (1 Bukit Batok Central Link #01-09 West Mall Singapore 658713)

My recommendation: Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.

Nicely tucked in a small corner of the mall with at least 3 different layouts of sittings, anyone could find a seat that suit their taste. Usually quiet and always accompanied with soft music, at most times of the whole week. Staff are quite friendly.

Amenities:
Lack of power points (Actually i couldn't find any), its hard to get through all your work on the laptop on a single charge. The air-conditioning could be cold sometimes, but i guess its really out of their control. Wifi is virtually non-existent, if you need access to the internet, you got to pack your own.

Starbucks

• The Central (6 Eu Tong Sen Street #01-29 The Central Singapore 059817)

My recommendation: Fantastic! What else can i say?
Its one of the smaller cafes but in the day, its the perfect place to find yourself settling in if you are looking for peace and quiet. Staff and customers who visit this place are equally friendly, you don't find this culture a lot elsewhere.

Amenities:
Lack of power points (made a quick eye sweep but didn't spot any). The air-conditioning just right, partly because its regulated by the non blocking sunlight. Wifi is virtually non-existent, if you need access to the internet, you got to pack your own.

• Jurong Point (63 Jurong West Central 3 #03-52/52A Jurong Point Singapore 648331)

My recommendation: This place is crap..... enough said
This place is located in the new wing of the mall. Its really really small, with little walk space. Almost 100% of the times i walked past, its filled to the brim. The place has no separation from the mall itself, so you can expect not to welcome any peace here.

Amenities:
Lack of power points (I did see one, but i don't think its functional). Its quite warm here, not sure why.

• Northpoint (930 Yishun Ave 2 #01-07 Northpoint S769098)

My recommendation: Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.
Its one of the more popular spots you find but its not really recommended if you are looking for peace and quiet. Its pretty crammed but the service is fantastic. I had ordered a mocha but forgot to indicate 'soy', only remembered it when i walked over to the receiving counter, which was by then too late. I made a last ditch request and they offered to change the drink to using soy even though i hadn't paid for that and they were already on it.

Amenities:
The power points are abundant! Almost every seat on the bench has a powerpoint under. Perfect for mobile warriors, a big plus point. The air-conditioning just right. Wireless@sg and wireless@sgx is there, but i couldn't connect to the WWW. Its probably my configuration....

• Holland Village (255 Holland Ave Singapore 278983)

My recomendation: Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.
Although its situated right in Holland Village, its actually quite a nice and quiet place to read or do your work. On the 2nd floor you get a bench facing the windows where you get a view of what's going on outside. They were playing some light music while i was there, so the whole atmosphere was pretty decent, without the noise and such.

Amenities:
There's about 6 power points spread across the bench. It seems they have made this a feature in a lot of their outlets. Its a plus point for the tech savvy people of this country. Wireless@sg is up, and pretty fast. This is quite expected since there ain't a lot of people hoarding the bandwidth here. Mobile network seemed pretty fast too, again, a plus point.

• Rochester Park (37 Rochester Drive Singapore 138640)

My recommendation: Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.
Its a 2-storey terrace house converted into a Starbucks outlet. The place is very spacious but its pretty warm when i was there on a Saturday. I think there wasn't enough air-conditioners for such a big place. I think this place would be very quiet during the weekdays, but with the crowd on weekends, the place got pretty loud due to the echoes. The staff don't seem very familiar to their work, first thing i notice is a lack of coordination between the staff at the counter. I guess the rapport ain't there yet.

Amenities:
There's only a few power points in the entire building. Despite being a new outlet, it didn't cater for mobile warriors like it did in other outlets. I guess it wanted to maintain an 'Atas' image and strive to keep inconsiderate over stayers away. There's no wireless@sg here, though i see a 'Starbucks Wireless' with no encryption. My advice, don't use it in case its just a phishing attempt. There's another thing, the toilet seems to be locked all the time.....

• West Coast Plaza (154 West Coast Road #01-01 West Coast Plaza Singapore 127371)

My recommendation: Real nice, i would come if i ran out of choices.
Its located on the 2nd storey near the main entrance of the building. Their layout is split into 3 sections. The first being near the counter, there are very limited tables in this section. The second being located on the outside portion of the building, this section is really really warm. The third is located outside Starbucks, but still within. This section has more tables and since its within the building, the temperature is comfortable. The whole building is pretty quiet for a weekend, but as usual its usually hoarded by students who are unwilling to share tables. Lucky for me, a Caucasian lady was willing to share her space with me.

Amenities:
There are 2 power points in the 3rd section, and that's about it. No Wireless@SG but again i saw a Starbuck Wireless, note the Starbuck without the 'S'. Toilet's right around the corner so it should be a big problem for those who need to go and come back quickly before their belongings get stolen.

• FusionPolis (Connexis No. 1 Fusionopolis Way #01-20 Singapore 138632)

My recommendation: Fantastic! What else can i say? (Weekends only)
Its located right in the middle of a small business district. Now this trait alone gives it the advantage of having both a rowdy scene on a working day, and a really nice and quiet atmosphere during the weekends. The staff are really friendly and its nice to know that a Singaporean is one of them. When i was here their registry was not working though, so prepare cash if you are visiting a day or 2 within the date of this post.

Amenities:
As with many new Starbucks outlet (Except Rochester), they have designated a space for a long high bench for customers who are alone and using lifestyle devices. There's a couple of power points there. There's another power point in the corner of the outlet. Not a lot, but i guess its ok if you are visiting during the weekends.

As with my past experiences in coffee outlets that are generally empty, their Wireless@sg or wireless@sgx connection are stable and decent in speeds.

Goals for the harmless menace

Had my first experience 'working' with a bunch of kids on Saturday, its one hell of a job....
Taking care of young cousin and sister aside, the next closest thing i had with kids was the volunteering event with my company where i only have to follow one kid around while the group roam in Sentosa.....Compared to this event on Sat......i say again, one hell of a job.....but there's also the sweet lining, right at the end of this post. :)

I had first saw the request on Facebook for help on facilitating a goal setting workshop for primary school students. I attended the brief and it turned out that its not really a volunteering event, but more like a parents-paid event that has limited budget. Either way, i offered my services after hearing out the brief and volunteered to have my allowances donated to the trainer's other volunteering group.

Came the day and about 2 handfuls of volunteers turned up in red. Due to my inexperience in this area, i am assigned to work with another volunteer (Most volunteers take up their own group alone). Mine was a small group with a good mix of boys and girls, but what i didn't expect was the hyper-activity that would come from them, it almost feels that they had too much to burn.....lol.

Among the kids, there's this fierce looking little girl who seem to have a grudge on me. When we were going through the introduction, she refuses to introduce herself, and gave me the 'evil stare'. Her little cousin follows suit. So imagine you got 2 kids down there giving you the evil grin while you are thinking of ways to keep things moving. Next thing the young girl said stunned me, 'I want to kill you'. lol!!! We were just 5mins after forming the group and i got kids who want to kill me liao.... Then the group went super-hyper and were talking about suicides, falling through the skies without parachute, throwing people off the building...... really, i can't believe i am dealing with kids under 11 years. Throughout the 6 hr event, i was wrestled, punched and strangled, but i eventually understood that they were getting comfortable with me and thus were less constrained with me, besides most of those punches were pretty friendly, except for one that really hit my rib-bone...ouch. My tag description probably also played a part, i wrote myself as 'Calm', they probably figured i won't get too angry no matter what they do, I would also rather that they hit me than the lady assigned to work with me. In the 6 hr event, we played games that serves to articulate certain positive traits. Trust me, its always better to put them in the games, give them something to focus and they won't think of doing funny stuff. I tried my best to emphasize the lessons learnt but time and size of the group makes that quite difficult sometimes.

One of my kids broke down when the trainer tried to get them to visualize what would happen to them when they fail their exams. For the record, and with due respect, i don't agree with what the trainer tried to do here. In my opinion, 10, 11 yr old kids are not mature nor well-equipped enough to handle unnecessary emotional stress. Although i believe it was unintentional (Since we were never briefed about this segment), but he had tried to make the kids re-lived his own bad childhood, i think that really was unfair to the kids. What he accomplished was to merely induce their guilt (for the truely sensible kids), or their fear (for those kids with parents who only care about saving face). That's not going to help the kids at all, the whole workshop is supposed to be about getting kids to their goals, their dreams, not getting them to imagine the terrible consequences. I took the weeping kid out for a chat. He gave me an impression i don't see alot in kids his age. He is working towards his passion, and he don't want to let anyone down. I gave him some pointers, asking him to also learn how to cope whenever he feels overwhelmed.

Although i came home tired and now nurse a backache, it was a good and satisfying experience for me. At the end of the day, some of the kids (especially those who punched and wrestled me) actually came by and said goodbye. The little kid whom i chatted with gave me a really bright smile, and that, has really made my day. :)

Weird.....

I had curry, brownies, 2 types of ice-cream, and yet nothing happened.
That's really weird for me.... did the AMS had a healing effect or what?

Rank of Stupid

Drinking myself drunk like that last night, that's definitely near the top of the most dumb things i ever did.