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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Tea Empire Bubble Tea Promotion! :)

I have a confession to make. 

I love bubble tea. 

I have a serious addiction to them these few months, I have at least once a cup each day.

With the insurgence of bubble tea shops again in Singapore, I am spoilt for choice from the variety of flavours to choose from. 

Although I normally stick to one flavour and one flavour only, last week opened me to a new range of flavours from Tea Empire.
In case you didn't know, Tea Empire is the parent company of Sweet Talk (did you just went "orhhh"  and "ahhh"?)


Andy's Sweet Talk Bubble Tea Stalls are located at K21 Bugis Junction Basement 1 & Blk 475 Choa Chu Kang Ave 3 #01-18, Sunshine Place. 

I'm going to share with you my ten steps of enjoying Tea Empire's Bubble Tea:

Above list denotes Tea Empire's Specialty Drinks
Here are the other recommended Teenagers' choices:
  • Blue Fantasy Soda Freeze
  • Fresh Mango w/ Pomelo
  • Orea and M&M w/ Ice-cream
  • Mango Smoothie


Some recommended Adults' Choices include:
  • Grass Jelly Milk Tea (my personal favourite, I hate grass jelly but somehow I liked this one a lot!)
  • Perilla Honey Green Tea (Have health benefits such as reducing the risk of cancer and is good for the skin)
  • Fresh Passionfruit Black Tea
And other flavours we tried are:

  • Strawberry Tango

  • Yakult Green Tea (Like this!)

  • Coffee M&M

  • Sour Green Apple Soda Freeze
    I will normally go for 50-75%, I have a sweet tooth! :B

    My favourite is Nata De Coco or CHEWY Jelly
    Blended, shaken, mixed
    Picture with BIG-eye Mint
    Get the best deals out of this!
    Give a smile and ask for more chocolates. Hehe.

    Busy tasting
    Voila, that's how I do it. What about you?

    The tasting session last week was filled with laughter, because of the silly antics of fellow bloggers, Silver, Joanna and Yong Wei! 
     
    Pretending to be an old lady
    Voluntarily bullied by Joanna
    Playing geeky with Yong Wei's REAL specs
    Voluntarily bullied by BOTH of them, again

    And they were fooling around while poor Mint was busy taking notes and being serious in her work. <3 









    It  was almost like she's the Lady Boss sometimes,standing inside the counter and giving instructions to us. Hur hur.

    Before we leave, we had group pictures taken with the yummy bubble tea beverages. 
    -

    PROMOTION: ENJOY 50 CENTS OFF YOUR BUBBLE TEA WHEN YOU SAY "I LOVE TEA EMPIRE, FROM THIANG!" BEFORE YOU ORDER AT THE COUNTER.

    Take advantage of this offer valid from 22 Sept to 29 Sept, only at the two outlets @ Bugis Junction and Blk 475 Choa Chu Kang Ave 3!


Monday, September 13, 2010

AQUALABEL - Panasonic Video Workshop

The video challenge is the toughest task thus far! 
That's what I exclaimed when I met Green Man after right after the video challenge that ended pretty late.

Since I had school before that, I was the last one to arrive at the workshop (sorry!). The guys from Panasonic had prepared a brief presentation on their latest digital camera and how to take better videos.

Although we were told to prepare for the challenge, it was nerve wrecking for me because I was tied down with school and work that I hadn't thought about what to do!

The worst part is, it was at this exact vision....

Other bloggers have started snapping away

...that I realised I forgot to borrow my Sis's camera for this challenge. How silly is that? Luckily for me, I had purchased my new mobile phone in the same week and hence I have my handy mobile's camera to use.

But there was another problem. The battery was running low. I was hoping so hard it wouldn't die on me (and it didn't lah). :3

Yes, welcome to the Get Reel stage where each contestant will have to deliver a short-liner and express our passion for AQUALABEL. We were each given 3 takes, shot using Panasonic's Lumix FX75 that is equipped with High-Definition(HD) video function.

As luck would have it, I progressed to the next stage with Xinyi and Jaclyn, and this also means one step closer to throwing my own AQUALABEL Private Party (will reveal more on this if I get into that round!). Heh.

As per last session, we had refreshments laid out on the table, and being the glutton that I am, I began to pig out at the available refreshments while our speaker prepares for his presentation:
Om nom nom
Later, Stella came over and handed me a tag:

Tag number for filming
Each blogger present at the workshop were given a tag that indicates who goes filming before or after. Mine was a reasonable number that gave me some time to prepare.


The presentation began with the features packed in the brand new Panasonic Lumix FX75, which include sensitive face detection (thanks to Intelligence Auto), a big touch screen and of course the ability to take HD videos.

This camera also came with three filter modes - Cosmetic (real), Soft Skin (snow white!) and Summer (tanned skin).  I fiddled with some of the modes and took a few pictures of myself in different skin tones.


We were also taught the importance of white balance and shooting with the aid of horizontal grid lines. The rule of third is just fundamental and what intrigued me is lighting and composition, how the video/picture tells a story.


The presenter identified some of the main problems with videos. For example, bad lighting angles and multiple light sources (conflict of lights). He also included a clip for further explanation, where the girl in the clip did not show her face or reflect accurately the colours of the make up she was using.

Finally, he showed us how to use the PhotofunStudio that comes with each Lumix FX75.

While the first blogger moves outside to start her filming, I was so nervous I keep on running to the washroom.

Here's how the makeshift "studio" looks like:


During the wait, I talked to Jaclyn and Verlyn who were sitting together with me. Jaclyn and I talked about everything from blogs to beauty contests to travel and I even asked her about her boyfriend before she left.


Although this is ultimately a competition, I don't feel any tension between Jaclyn and I. When Jaclyn asked me what I had prepared, I just shared it with her openly and in its entirety. She was practising her lines in the washroom too. There wasn't any enmity between us nor any signs of catfight going to break out.

She even suggested what I could change or improvised on, because I wasn't so sure myself. Thankfully,  I did follow her advice in the end and changed my entire line five minutes before my turn. Hurhur.

And you know what? I was happy with my performance that I changed at the last minute.

I enjoyed being part of this friendly and enriching contest where I make new friends, gain new insights, and the fight for the grand prize becomes secondary (not that I don't want it! :p). At every milestone of this journey, I picked up a new skill. :3

Stella, Me, Jaclyn
Stella later joined in our conversation too. Heh. Without her help, I wouldn't be able to resolve all my technical problems! :3


So now, you be the judge!

The final video clip (after my own edit) is going to be posted up on AQUALABEL FACEBOOK PAGE soon, so please show your support by 'like'-ing it!


This challenge seems to be full of ups and downs for me, especially when it comes down to the technical aspects. The laptop couldn't determine where the media files were, and they were in a format that was not Mac-compatible (.MTS). I had to go plough through many, erm, systems/sites before I found a converter that works well for me. Phew!

I know I got to be thick skin for this, so I'm gonna be shameless and ask YOU to cast your votes for me. It's perfectly fine if you don't feel the same way as I do, thus refuse to click on the 'like' button, no hard feelings okay?

Please leave comments and let me know what I could have improved on, or what you dislike! I welcome constructive comments.


Thank you very much to the AQUALABEL team and Zi Ang (presenter from Panasonic)!

Yes, I went back to eating after filming. :p I promise to share my food with you at the next challenge if you vote for me. :D

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Studying in an American School Within Singapore

Oh my 天,I cannot believe how busy I am ever since school started last week. This is only the second week and I’ve already done 2 quizzes, submitted an essay outline and have even two pending projects.

And I thought my school was “sucky” in terms of education, but now I actually think otherwise. So far, all my lecturers are either the really serious (boring but good) about their teaching, or provoking (in a good manner) types.

I especially enjoy my Sociology classes, where my instructor really engages the class and always got me thinking about the questions she throws at us during the lectures. Besides, we recapped some of what I had learnt before, and watched videos like the Zimbardo Prison Experiment and Stanley Milgram Experiment!

Here are the video clips if you want to find out more about how Authority "gives" Power, and see how it can manipulate men to turn good people into evil people(there’s a book on this behaviour too by the way).

Original clip of Dr. Zimbardo's Prison Experiment:


Examples of the Stanley Milgram Obedience Test:


AND THIS ONE THAT CAN'T BE EMBEDDED.


Since I’m at it, I’ll also be blogging at this Wordpress blog for one of my modules, so please hop over there weekly and join in the discussions. What I expect is that there’ll be heated arguments (as it always have when it comes to me, sadly), but this time round I'll try to think from both POVs before I respond. Heh.

On a side note, I've found the perfect venue for me to have my afternoon tea and do work or revision (during exam periods). It's conveniently located between school and home, and I love the atmosphere there. For selfish reasons I don't wish to announce its name and location, because it's a newly opened cafe and I would really love for it would remain clean, cosy and quiet! 

Perhaps you already know where that is?
Till next time,
Thiang!
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