After months of hiatus from blogging, I'm back!!! The past few months were what I called peak session for myself, searching for a new job after graduating from my Diploma course and when I finally secured one, it was indeed quite a busy period, learning what I need and integrating into the new environment.

The same job scope but with more challenges and responsibilities, I'm hired as a Customer Care Officer under the business department. The training was fast paced, and being a person who can't learn very fast, I lacked behind the others. However I was thankful that I eventually caught up and passed the training, I really appreciated my batch mates for helping and giving me a memorable course which lasted for a month.  

It was then we founded out that we too are included in the list for the annual company's Dinner & Dance. This time it was at the Hard Rock Hotel in Sentosa. All the anticipation for the night sprung up often, with random thoughts such as how are we going to get home after the event and how good will the food be. Now coming to the food, it was mediocre at best. I expected it to be better but it tastes the same as any other hotel banquets I have been to. The only "WOW" was the cold dish starter, other than that was totally "whatever...".  In my most honest and blunt opinion, the event was ok but nothing memorable. The only big hoo-ha of the night was the lucky draw, the prizes were truly eye-candy and that included the consolation. As fate decided, I returned home prize-less.   

Nonetheless I thank my company for the free food and night. The fellowship with my colleagues was the main core. We got high and had a fair share of laughters during the night. I am also thankful to SingTel for giving me gregarious and helpful colleagues who are always there to back each other up.

The Four Horseman has returned to the shores of Singapore, they Seek & Destroyed while us fans continued to Ride the Lightning!!! The 20 year wait was over: it was no doubt the biggest anticipation concert in Singapore this year. 

Some fans were lucky to see them in their prime rocking out with their long hair and head-banging back in 1993 at the Indoor Stadium, but I was among the unlucky fans as I was still on pampers then. It's pretty obvious that the Indoor Stadium wouldn't be a good venue to host the Heavy Metal Gods due to limited capacity under one roof, instead it was held at the Changi Exhibition Centre, a rather alien place to most of us and it was rather inconvenient if you do not possess a transport. Lucky for us fans, shuttle buses were chartered by the sponsor (LAMC) at the cost of $10/pax. Ray and I didn't take the shuttle bus though as we had a ride home on his parent's car after the concert, instead we took a taxi in and the price was rather reasonable at $14. The area was rather spacious, windy with a serene panoramic view of the sea though we could barely feel like when the concert started with the sound systems blasting through our ears but it was in fact a suitable location for a band with a huge status.

We arrived at the area at 6.30pm just in time to see the opening band perform, which to our surprise was 1970's band Anvil, an extra token given by LAMC, and they got us pumped and all hyped up for the big thing. After waiting impatiently for over an hour after Anvil ended their set, the lights went out and a familiar video played with the song "The Ecstacy of Gold" kicking in, everyone began screaming as we all knew that they were about to come out. The screams got louder and insane when Lars stormed the stage, followed up by the rest of the band. I couldn't believe it, finally after all these years my wish has come true, seeing James, Kirk, Robert, and Lars in person! To kick start the show, they started with "Hit the Lights" followed with a familiar tune which every Metallica fans MUST know, "Master of Puppets". The crowd went insane chanting "MASTER! MASTER!" following up with a mosh-pit beside me (I didn't join in though). Familiar materials from their golden era followed, with fans chanting songs such as "One", "Blackened", and "Enter Sandman". The concert was awesome not because of the songs, but the solos played especially by Kirk Hammett ripping his guitar. When "Enter Sandman" ended, fans chanted "We Want More!" because we NEED more as said by James. Three songs were played for the encore, "Creeping Death", "Battery", and finally what everyone anticipated, the song which was their first breakthrough and it was from their first album, Kill Em' All, and it's "Seek and Destroy"!

Saturday, 24th August was no doubt one of my best nights of 2013. It was glad to finally see them and I do hope that they will return again sooner than 20 years. Lars you kept your promise back in 1993, do keep your promise once again as you said that you guys will be back. 

"Singapore, you kicked our ass tonight" as said by James Hetfield.

Somebody just got to ruin it...

After hearing so many positive reviews about the truffles fries at Au Chocolat from my friends, I decided to make the trip with Sandra to give it a shot.

Ay Chocolat is located at a corner of Marina Bay Sands and is divided into two sections: a retail confectionery store selling snacks, such as cakes, cupcakes, and merchandise. The other half is a bistro which has a dining menu. We didn't try the snacks as our main goal is to taste the truffle fries and not them. As it was a weekend, there was a short queue and it took us approximately 10 minutes to get a table (Guess everyone crazy over the truffle fries :P). 

The menu has a huge variety of main courses, side courses and desserts and the Au Chocolat Tower Cake ($18) looked appealing but like what I mentioned, we were only dining in for the truffle fries and the others can wait. The truffle fries serving was generous and good for a serving of two, it's crispy and drizzled with white truffle oil and seasoned with truffle sea salt. It was so good that I had to convince myself to eat slowly to savior the taste, the truffle aroma that hit me when the fries were served couldn't get off my mind and made me carve for more of those. It came with BBQ sauce and mayonnaise but I didn't really dip them because in my honest opinion, the sauce ruins the marvelous taste.  

Though the price lies on the higher side but reasonable ($15), it is definitely worth to give it a try and in the near future, I will return to Au Chocolat not only for them but for the main courses too. After eating those, I just don't have the mood to eat McDonald's fries anymore *chuckles*.

Here is comes, almost a month post surgery! Since there isn't really much to say, I shall just make it short and sweet.

The swelling on my face has either completely or 90% faded away. As for food, I'm able to eat almost everything save crunchy or any that are too hard to chew, I had been eating much harder foods the past few days such as brownies, sausages and chicken rice (glad to finally eat rice once again) and didn't experience any problems chewing on them. I'm still anticipating the sensation to return on my gums and part of my lips which takes about 2-3 months according to my doctor.

I had another appointment with Dr. Danny today and it was a thorough one, had an oral cleaning and those rubber bands were back on each side of my jaw (not again...). I was supposed to have the plastic plates on my upper teeth removed but it broke in half last Friday while having my dinner and luckily, my mum was able to assist me in removing the hooks on them otherwise I would have to spend a hundred bucks at A&E. The rubber bands gave me irritation but thankfully it didn't affect my eating habits. I have also been informed by him that in two weeks time, the metal plates at my bottom teeth will be removed and be prepared for the pain that is about to come (oh crickey!).

I'm really glad that I'm finally able to almost eat anything as it was tormenting to stay away from so many of my favourite dishes and snacks, my lifestyle is back to normal I can say.

So it was National Day on 9 August and that means it was a public holiday too. I wasn't really bothered about the National Day Parade, it was monotonous from my point of view and there weren't any appeal compared to the parades held over 10 years ago. Instead, I thought of taking advantage of the day off to visit Gardens by the Bay with my girlfriend not only to see the flowers but to take lots of pictures on my trustworthy Nikon D5100.

There are two domes, the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. We decided to visit both domes and paid $15 for both entrances as there was a National Day promotion going on during that period of time (Usual price is $20 for local residents). We visited the flower dome first and upon entry, there were various zones with different flowers to welcome us. It took us roughly two hours to complete the first dome and my review of this dome is a worthy visit. Here are some of the pictures I took from this dome.

   

Next was the Cloud Forest, and the main attraction is the waterfall which is about 8-9 stories tall. It was quite cold the moment we entered but that was nothing for me to be honest as I'm used to even colder temperatures. The real tour starts from the 7th level and spirals down till the basement which leads to the exit, each level containing a different theme such as cloud walk which is an aerial walkway around the top of the mountain giving both a closer view of the epiphyts growing on the outside of the mountain, and a view from above on the entry level below. The Cloud Forest is slightly smaller than the Flower Dome but it is higher and replicates the cool moist conditions found in tropical mountain regions in South-East Asia, Middle- and South America. whereas the latter replicates a mild, dry climate and features plants found in the Mediterranean and other semi-arid tropical regions. Below are some of the pictures from this dome.

Overall, it was a worthy visit to the Gardens with a different and a new experience but I wouldn't go too often. A great day off spent without regrets.

It's almost 2 weeks since I underwent surgery and recovery has been going well. The swelling has gradually reduced and it should take at least a few days to a week more till it fully goes away according to my surgeon.

I had another appointment with Dr. Danny in the morning today to get my stitches and rubber bands removed. The nervousness of getting my stitches removed came to me when I entered his room as I've read up from some other bloggers online the night before that removing the stitches hurt. First, he removed the remaining rubber bands and did the usual oral cleaning before taking the scissors to remove the stitches *panicked!!!*, I was so nervous that I tensed my body as I could feel him removing them and to my surprise the pain wasn't that bad as expected, just felt like an ant bite (guess it was due to the result of him doing it slowly and gently as said by him :P). Once everything was done, he said that he would be removing the plastic plates on my upper teeth on the next appointment which will be 2 weeks later and being a hungry soul for harder food, I asked him if I'm able to eat a larger range of foods and his response was noodles, fish and pasta. (Yay not too bad, but I still miss my chicken rice and steak!!!)

Now that those rubber bands are gone, I'm finally able to move my freely and had a mini celebration rewarding myself with a Sundae from Baskin Robins (yummilicious!). I'm also finally able to chew in the middle rather than the side which I had been doing for years prior to the surgery, it felt a little odd but guess that's how it goes for natural human instinct *khekhekhe*.

I'm really glad that everything has been going well and that I didn't experience any problems so far.

Hooray... one week has passed since I went under the knife and I'm feeling a lot better. 

The swelling on my face has subsided and I have begun eating more varieties of food such as spaghetti and, lasagne but solid food such as steak is still out for me. The only time I felt pain was when I laughed and being a person who laughs rather easily, I couldn't hold it and my upper jaw stung. 

Sleeping has been a lot easier and almost everything is back to normal, though I feel a little different as I have not been lifting weights and I'm waiting for the green light from my surgeon to resume doing it. Speaking has gotten easier too and I don't have much trouble moving my jaw, but the rubber bands are kinda irritating and food can get stuck in between and I will have a hard time trying to remove the food particles stuck.

Thank God that my recovery is going faster than normal and that I'm out of those ensure milk for good. I will be visiting my surgeon once again tomorrow for oral cleaning and change of rubber bands. Hope that week 2 will see the return of little harder foods. I miss my steak, chicken chop and satay!!! :(