♥ Princessa's Royal Diary ♥ - Royalty has never been so PINK!

Waking up early for breakfast is something I avoid doing on regular Saturday mornings. Seriously, who in the right mind would not want to sleep in? It's not as though there's church on Saturdays and I don't intend to catch worms either.

^{Image credit: http://www.jjalligators.com}

The morning started early, a tiresome morning if I may add - am not emphasising the reason for the statement. While I took a bath, the bear went to get the car - he only had coupon till 9am and it was past 9.30am.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Soup Spoon. The soup is fine, considerably good in fact. Although it's pretty much an instant-made-type soup and probably any Tom, Dick or Harry is able to make it, I'd have to say the ingredients were pretty fresh. Then again, it could be because we were early and everything was right out of the oven...

For him:

For her:

It's not really gender specific of course. But portion wise... perhaps. I did have a small serving.

Moving along, since I'm not about to "review" Soup Spoon just quite yet. I will, but since I only go there with the bear, it's best suited for our way out of date "family" blog, Family of Bears that is.

Now it's time to walk-a-boot and shop-a-boot. I have gadgets I need to pick up - mobile broadband modem (and replace the SIM card of course), bluetooth mouse (I really like the Apple one), that thingie that gives you more USB ports (my Mac only has two ports) and... perhaps a good looking pink headphones? I've been wanting one for so very long but just could decide which to get. Sadly, there aren't many (any) reviews on the pink headphones that I'm eyeing. Pink aside (must have nonetheless), the sound quality must be good too. My white Creative ones were awesome but sadly, it's somewhat damaged. I can still use it, but I won't be caught dead seen in public with something so hideous. It's as though the headphones are moulting - like a snake.

After scouting practically the whole VivoCity (exaggerated of course - it's just Challenger and Best) we ended up back at Challenger. Honestly, Challenger isn't the best deal for gadget purchasing. Yes, as members, the pricing are pretty decent, but you can get cheaper elsewhere. That said, a lot of my cheaper gadgets (those less than a thousand) are from Challenger. Thing is, to me time is money. I really am not keen on wasting time scouting for the best price just to save a couple of bucks. Think about it, that couple of hours (or more), can be spent working on other stuff that could possibly make much more! I work on a freelance basis, the more projects I take up, the more dough I get - that of course depends on whether I get projects or not. I'm sure you know what I'm getting at.

We dropped by the Canon shop, twice in fact. Didn't get anything of course, just doing a little browsing. I don't quite like the shutter sound of the Canon 50D but the high-speed continuous shot is fantastic - compared to my 500D at least - only has the normal continuous shot function. I don't know how amazing the picture quality is when shooting moving objects in high-speed continuous but the ability to do so, impresses me. Then again, anything that my DSLR can't do impresses me.

PS: I still don't know how to use my Canon 500D's video mode. And yes, I'm not the instruction manual kinda person, until I get really stuck that is.

That's practically how the first half of the day was spent. The second... well, I became Lim Bo Seng! Not physical transformation, I "played" as him.

I'm talking about the board game Priss's friend created, Singapore Journal Journal Singapore if not mistaken. Priss invited me and the bear to try it out, and we obliged despite not being much of a board-gamer.

I'm not going to reveal too much about the board game, neither am I going to throw photos of it in. In fact, I'm gonna just briefly run through it. It's not that I detest it or anything like that - I like it. I kinda forgot to take photos of the game, plus I'm not exactly sure of the rules. Furthermore, I am going to dedicate one whole post to the game on a later date. But of course, there are some "details" I would like to discuss with the creator first. I wonder if they would wanna engage a blogger ambassador for it? The ball is round (say it in Mandarin it'd make more sense).

Having to select a character, I picked Lim Bo Seng. Not because I remember him from my history books or that his character is amazingly strong, I picked him merely because I felt he looked the least ugly out of the lot. No offence, but these people can never enter a manhunt and I mean NEVER!

So now, call me Lim Bo Seng! Till the rest of the game that is. I would kill myself if I looked like him, or any other GUY for that matter. There's no way I'd trade my gender.

Lim Bo Seng's special ability is basically being "pia kia" though he looks nothing of that sort. By "pia kia" I mean he is the only character that can challenge other players for their sector regardless if someone is in it. There's an effect card that gives you that one-time ability as well, but Lim Bo Seng's ability is like inbuilt.

A rule in the game states something like: if a player, whether the owner of the sector or not, is standing in the sector (that's already owned), you cannot challenge the owner to the sector. Challenging is pretty difficult for me to explain to you in words. Simply said, when you challenge, you're like bidding in an auction and whoever with the higher bid, wins. But unlike auctions, you are only given one bid - one time and you're out. You want to challenge players for their sector so at the end of the round you'd be rewarded more resource (or money for that matter). Also, at the end of the "game" the number of sectors you own gives you points as well. The player with the most points wins. It's as simple as that.

Come to think of it, I can actually remember quite a bit of the rules after all. Not all, but quite a bit.

I would love to tell you who the rest picked and what abilities their character have, but I forgot. Or rather, I never really bothered. I know the bear's ability is to swop two cards from his hand with those within the deck that's been played - apparently he can pick what cards to swop. Priss's ability gives her one more action whenever it's her turn. I can't remember the creator's ability. I only remember eliminating him in the second level! Wahahahaha!

I would say that my character's ability is pretty neat - aggressive at least. But without the right amount of resources, it's pretty useless - no money no challenge. I learned a pretty lame technique. But this would only work if I didn't say out loud I was or might be doing it, and if the card that says "both parties' bids would go to the bank" is drawn and opened. Basically, with my ability, I can continuously challenge players for their sectors and once in a while bid nothing just so they'd waste their resources. The creator mentioned this technique during the game actually. But he didn't exactly specifically say it's a huge advantage for my character. Then again, I only thought of it just.

In conclusion, the bear's ability is perhaps the best, which should be somewhat handicapped. Wait, can he change as and when he pleases, once a round or once a game? I'm pretty sure it wasn't once a game. Oh well.

We played till about 7+pm if not mistaken.

Right after, we went over to Paradiz Centre for dinner at The Big Bird.

Known for its chicken rice, both Priss and the bear settled for that.

Priss had fried chicken:

The bear had white ones:

I on the other hand went for black pepper beef with chicken rice instead.

I have the habit of drawing a star with the black sauce over my chicken rice.

How was the meal? ... Pretty terrible.

Priss wasn't all that pleased either.

The food wasn't that bad, but they had really limited ingredients. Can you imagine having chicken rice without liver? Only one glass of barley left? Two types of beef, one out of stock? Not forgetting, black pepper beef costed SGD12 with really little beef.

I remember The Big Bird in a very different light. It used to be quite good. Good enough for me to not mind having a meal there at least - let me just say that I hardly eat at food courts and hawkers are a huge no-no - takeaways are a different story altogether. These days... unimaginable.

Disappointed, we still kept to the plan and headed to the pubs across the street to watch Liverpool vs. Portsmouth. The bear watched at least. Priss slept a bit and I was trying to get my StarHub mobile broadband to work.

Which reminds me. Activated in an hour's time MY ASS! This entry is like five days late and guess what, I'm still connection-less. If not for Wireless@SG I'd be like offline most of the time. Why the fuck am I spending SGD40 a month (50 percent discounted on monthly subscription cause I have three different types of StarHub services) to go online when I can't get online! It's been two weeks! So, is StarHub going to gimme another 50 percent discount off my subscription for the downtime? Duh.

Fyi, Liverpool lost.

Before calling it a day, it was PHOTO SESSION!

The purpose of the "shoot" was somewhat for an "upcoming" outfit entry. So instead of posting the numerous photos of me "posing for the camera" here and reposting them after, here are the more "interesting" ones!

And a photo with my BFF!

Whoever said it was easy being a model is sooo wrong. Keeping on a diet to maintain the figure is one barrel, having to pose and look good in front of the camera is no easy task - the looking good part kinda depends on whether your pretty or not to begin with.

It really takes skill to be able to pose properly. Skills in which I clearly do not possess. Or it could be that I lack the figure. Oh well.

After that was done, we headed back home. The bear dropped me off first before Priss. They live pretty close by, I on the other hand am on the other end of the island.

Btw...

Don't you dare call me Lim Bo Seng!

PS: It's Journal Singapore not Singapore Journal. Ooops.

^{Photos credit: Derek Rod.}