Happy 21st Birthday XiiaoNic

Somewhere in the month of November we celebrate our XiiaoNicole's 21st birthday. It was by far one of the prettiest and well thought birthday parties I've been to and I can see that all the effort that Nicole puts into finally paid off.













I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed themselves at Nicole's party. I mean, the food is nice, the place is nice. Everything is just... NICE! Saw some familiar faces over there and its the perfect time to catch up with one another.

24 September 2016

From the continuation of my previous post -> birthday month of how much I'm bragging about my friends celebrating and remembering my birthday. YES! This is the 2nd part of the post well cuz I have THAT many friends. Okay I kid, I don't. But anyways, on 24th September I turned 24, but me being me I'm super denial and I keep telling people and posting on my social media that I'm #Sweet16.

So on that very day I met up with Joyce, Fenny BaeBae, MyApplePai, Ruoxuan, Weijie, Kaizhi, and Limei which we, together with some other group of friends affectionally call ourselves #Cousins but due to some unforeseen circumstances I don't call us that anymore. #illegagathering sounds nicer.

So I met the above mentioned (excluding Limei) at town area whereby we just walked around and catch up with one another. After which, the plan was to have some desserts at the Craftholic pop up store located at School Of The Arts, SOTA in short. But because the cafe have such poor customer management we were told that dine in was closed for the day. What a bummer! To kill some time, I had my personal manager -> @YourApplePie to help me take my #OOTD shots cuz SOTA has nice backdrop that is insta worthy. LOL!!!



After we're done taking our ootd's, we went back to find the rest. So when I was about to put down my stuff, I saw Ruoxuan's eyes was like looking sideways not knowing what to do. As in, she looked flustered if you want to put it that way. It was kinda funny though cuz she looked equally confused as well. After that Ruoxuan started singing the Happy Birthday song and followed by the rest. Seconds later I saw Joyce walking to me with a birthday cake with a glitter candle on top (I NEED TO HIGHLIGHT THAT ITS GLITTER OKAY!!!)

By the way the candle is still inside my earpiece pouch. They told me to keep it and reuse it next year. #Determination (Muscle Emoji)

I was super duper touched cuz it has been awhile since I last saw them. Probably close to a year already, some even more than a year. So to share my joy I decided to share my cake with all of them. The boys were pretty reluctant cuz well, they prefer girls to feed them. But whatever, we're fronds, nothing to be shy or afraid of.



After having some "ME" time, we proceed on with the plan for that day. UNCLE RINGO CARNIVAL!!! I'm abit excited but yet I don't want to have high expectations cuz #expectationsVSreality. Carnival sounds like a pretty fun and interesting "term" but when you get to see the actual thing.... Nah, not so.

So when we arrived at Beauty World, Limei finally met us and I was presented with a box of 12 cupcakes. Hehe! THANK YOU LIMEI!!!

We saw the carnival which from far looked pretty promising. Until we walked one round and think that the prizes for the games and such are pretty meh. What was fun about the carnival was that we all spam our cameras taking shots after shots after shots. We even got the attention from the public when I was taking this photo below of Kaizhi and Weijie carrying me. Hahaha!!!



It was hella fun and we didn't even spend a single cent. It was just pure fun spending time together with your friends. After that, we head on for dinner at some "Zi Char" stall it was a birthday treat from the crew.

You know, I've never thought that I would make friends with people I know online. Furthermore we barely know each other in the beginning. From strangers to people you meet at events and on to friends and now to what we are. Throughout this whole journey it was a bumpy ride. We fought, argued but we look past it and still remain as good friends. This, I truly appreciate it.

Thank you all for your love and care all these years. To some, 7 years may be short. But to me, time doesn't determine a friendship. Its about how both parties juggle their time. If they care, they will. Even if both parties only meet once a year, you'll still end up having countless topics to talk, and endless things to laugh about. Words are not enough to express how thankful and grateful I am of each and everyone of you. Even the simplest "happy birthday" message puts a smile on my face. The thought of people remembering your birthday is just special. It makes me feel special. Be it Blogger Friends, Army Mates, Poly, ITE, Secondary, Primary school friends or my Family. Thank you guys so so much. :')

For the fun, peace, love and joy. 

Happy Birthday to me. 

#donnygaoSweet16

Starbucks® Teavana™

I used to be a huge fan of Starbucks when I during my Poly days but I gradually start drinking lesser when I entered the army. Recently, I went for their Teavana® media launch at the Starbucks located at Rochester Mall, which happens to be one of their reserve outlet.

Thanks to Benjamin (@Benvoda) I get to be one of the few lucky people to do a taste test on some of their wide range of Teavana® teas. Lucky for us, we were there early, so we manage to sneak up some good photos before the rest of the media arrive.



The event was pretty fruitful and interesting one, I was taught about the different taste of their new Teavana® tea series and how we can compliment each of the individual tea with the small bites that Starbucks has to offer. For instance, the Earl Grey Tea would be best complimented with a cheesecake as the taste is pretty mild and balanced so that it will not overpower the taste of the cheesecake. Before this media launch, all I ever drink was either Java Chip or Mocha Frappe. But after tasting their Teavana® series, I'm sold by their fusion Matcha & Espresso. I mean like come on, you get Coffee + Green Tea in 1 drink. WHY NOT RIGHT?!?! And I was told that its their most hot seller cause its super instagrammable.

If coffee and green tea isn't your cup of tea, you can always op for a more refreshing beverage like the Iced Shaken Hibiscuc Tea w/ Pomegranate Pearls. Its pretty refreshing and instantly gives you the perk that you need.