Okay, since I am feeling rather hungry at the moment, though I have no idea why, I thought that I might post something about chocolates. Yes. Chocolates. It totally complements my blog's URL, isn't it? And yes, chocolates are the sex, baby!

So, coming from a chocolatier's point of view (that's me), I'm gonna list out, with complete commentaries and everything else, on the different types of chocolates, and where you could possibly get them. And of course, the rare, the exquisite, and the affordable ones are also included. Finally, if you ever need some handy tips, don't eat too much chocolates at one sitting, it totally makes you puke. Seriously.

For those who are a bit well-off as compared to the others, or if you have tons and loads of money to spare, do try one of these below mentioned chocolates.


Noka Vintages Collection at $854 per pound Noka chocolate from Dallas.
Ok, I know this is a tad too expensive, though from what I've heard from chocolate connoiseurs worldwide, this chocolate spells rarity, and taste is what they've got. They are not simply the melt-in-your-mouth type, but rather, they are the ones that makes the taste stay in your mouth, making you crave for more. Although black in colour, but do not mistake it for dark chocolate, though I would say that the chocolate content is about 75%, perhaps?


Godiva "g" Collection at $120 per pound.
If I am not mistaken, this collection can be found in New York, and also Belgium, where the brand name originates from. See the little chocolate hearts? This is a perfect gift for the ones you love, though cliche it may seem. Again, not another typical melt-in-you-mouth type, rather, a type of chocolate that if you have the expenses, may want to try. Another one of the world's rarest and finest chocolates from a well-known chocolatier.

For those who are looking for affordable, yet extremely exquisite chocolates...


Feodora and Droste chocolates, going for less than S$20 from chocolate outlets from Cocoa Trees, or for the smart ones, Droste chocs can be found at NTUC supermarkets!
One of my personal favs of all time, this set of Feodora and Droste chocolates come in all shapes and sizes, from choc bars, to choc pastilles, to choc sticks for the Feodora ones. They are affordable, very nicely packaged, and also, made to order for occasions! One tip to take note of; drink lots of water when you are eating these chocolates, THEY ARE DEADLY! Especially the Droste lait pastilles, they ooze of sweetness!

For the all-time old school favourites...


Toblerone bars, going for less than S$5, available at all shops selling chocolates, islandwide
As I said, Toblerone chocs are making a reappearance after revamping its image for more than a few months. So anyways, what are you waiting for? Go get one of these bars, be it the white chocolate, the dark chocolate, or the milk chocolate bars now for that familiar taste! Remember old-school, darlings! And the coolest thing about them? They have traces of caramel bits and peanuts in them! Chewy, yummmmmyyyyyy!!!!


M&Ms, the bestest children chocolates, selling for S$2 per pack, or less, depending on the size
Ah yes! Another one of our favourite coloured chocolate hard pastilles! The taste is gorgeous, it's simply on-the-go, terribly fuss-free, and who needs Drake Noir when you have these? It's cheap too! And of course, really nice to look at, nice packaging, and of course, not forgetting, the familiarity of the round little pastille that has hands and legs. And, and, flip on the other side of the package, and you might see some little quiz that you might perhaps wanna try!

So, there you go! Some finest and affordable chocolates that I might possibly sieve out from the millions of them out there. Of course, don't be afraid to try your luck and eat whatever chocolate that intrigue you, and don't worry about the diabetes thingie. It comes secondary. And remember, chocolates are meant to be eaten slowly, so take your time to enjoy every single ingredient that goes into the making of the chocolate, yah. Including the cocoa. :D

Meanwhile, happy chocolate-pigging, everyone!

Love,
Shakirah, your chocolate connoiseur :) :) :)

What's the worst thing that you can ask another person in times of extreme stress? "Would you wish that things were back where they were 10 years ago? When we were still little children, playing tag and being ever so carefree?"

I hate that question. Still hate it.

I mean, come on. The world's moving. You've got to move on too, y'know. You can't just stay at one spot, stay stagnant, and wish for everything to be the way you want it to be. It just doesn't work that way. Because everything, every single step we take in life, every single breath, every single act we commit, is predestined. We can control it, but we can't control every aspect of our life. It's just too impossible. Similarly, turning back time would be another worse catastrophe that can ever happen. As much as I hate that question, if I were asked (which I was, on a few occasions), I would curtly say that I would not change anything. Because I believe fully that whatever that has happened has happened for the best. It's like, if you wanna change your life, you're sort of being ungrateful. And I don't think that it's right. Ok, so it sounds super-imposing, but face it, guys, the Higher Power would absolutely dislike it if we are anything ungrateful. So, the thing is, we should really learn how to be grateful for once, and not sit quietly, thinking about ways in which we can turn back time and change whatever we wanna change. We cannot change it. Everything happens for a reason. And that reason, we have got to accept without question. That's just the way life works.

I'm sick of people asking me for favours. Seriously, I get so many favours asked within a week! It's not that I don't want to help, but it is not in my capacity to help others when I am trying to help myself. Especially if you asked me to do you a favour which goes against my values and principles. I feel that I have wronged myself. I'm not trying to sound very angelic or goody-two-shoes here, but I am that person who is fixed on my values and not easily swayed. And I hate being asked to do favours that I am not in favour of! Period. So if you ever see me scrunching my face when you asked me to do something, then the message is clear. I don't wanna help you anymore.

Oh my God, I can't wait for everything to come to an end. The shrink was right. Studying at an intense pace like this for two years needs lots of stamina. I bet mine's like a close to null position. I need some strength. Please God, grant me that strength to last myself till my pain is over. Cos I don't have anybody strong enough to support me emotionally right now...

Baby come back to me
in my heart I still believe
we were meant to be
together so whatever it takes

Baby come back to me
I should've never set you free
love maybe
come back

So I did the Incredible India test, but so what? No big deal. In any case, thanks to Shiv for making me do it. He was so cool about it uh, that I almost felt like giving in, which I did afterwards. Oh well, it's best to help a friend who helped me with India before. 0.0

I love pure math. For some weird reason. Really, I think I have that much logic in my brains, even though I may not necessarily come across as that kind of person. Some friends are complaining about how pure math doesn't make sense at all, why some can be like that, why others cannot be like this, etcetera, etcetera. For me, considering that I do have a rather structured brain, it's that simple, actually. They are all the same, except that you have to do a bit of twisting here and there, otherwise, we should be fine. Which explains why I suck so much at stats. You know, for a question, they can have a ten-liner per paragraph and beat around the bush, trying to get one simple point across. Like, for instance, they can ask something like this (note that this is a real question):

"A large school engaged an external training agency to help boost its English scores for one year ago. Having worked with the school for one year, the agency wants to convince the school to renew its contract for another year. In trying to justify its effectiveness, it gave a written quiz to 120 randomly selected students who have undergone the programme. One year ago, this same quiz was taken by the previous cohort which did not go through the programme. In analyzing the results, the agency found out that the mean score had increased from 60 to 62.5. An unbiased estimate of the population variance of the English scores was found to be 400. Assuming that the language abilities of the current and previous cohorts are comparable, test, at 4% significance level, whether the increase in the mean quiz score is a significant improvement, stating clearly the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis."

See what I mean? That itself is one question. They can be more concise, these Math teachers. Seriously, I have always subscribed to the notion that Math do not need words. Just numbers and variables. I see many flaws in this question. Now we know why Math teachers are so long-winded, eh? The question is do-able, but by the time I read the third line, my brains spaced out. Cos there's too many words to be read. So in the end, skip question la!

I'm so proud of myself.

I know this is a bit late to blog about the NDP, but I have to say, I am pretty much impressed that the team managed to pull such an amazing show on a platform that was floating on the whatever river it was called. So, anyways, I enjoyed the combat thingies the most, you know, the part when these men in uniform started going up to the audience to get themselves involved in these war combat exercises and such. It was pretty cool, and the water curtains were beyond fantastic, I must say. Glitzy, in fact. I didn't really watch the performance part of the celebration, but I thought I saw camels walking on a bridge. And then I heard the commentator said something about animals of Southeast Asia. I thought, "I had no idea we had camels in this region. Yes. Camels. Woah." Ok maybe I heard wrongly, but still, where did those camels came from? It's like they popped out of nowhere. But they were cute! And so were the red fishes. Although the guy kind of flopped on the slope, but that was ok, since we all liked Nemo fishes anyways. And you know what? The theme song for this year was kind of boring, like it had to travel all around the world, mentioning broadway and the great wall and whatnots, before they had a simple sentence, "There's no place I'd rather be..." My gawd, it was so CONCISE. Thanks uh. I think I wasted about 5 minutes listening to Kit Chan's rendition of the song. But anyways, it was an okay song, and it provides people who have not gone to these places on what they are called. Ok, pretty lame there, but you get my drift.

Been having the cold and had high fever the past two days. My, I thought I was dying, cos according to grandmomma, I was so sick and my feet were freezing cold, that she really thought that it was my last moment. Me oh my. It was that bad. Yes it was. I was pretty scared, and thinking, "God, please let me wake up tomorrow. Don't take away my life tonight. I haven't apologized to all the people I've sinned against. And I haven't told some people that I love them too much." Haha..Ok, it's dramatic, but really, when you're on your 'deathbed', that, you might be thinking. I kid you not.

So, I guess God must have given me a second chance, because tomorrow, I'm gonna tell the person(people) that I love him/her/them very much and to please forgive me if I have sinned towards them.

Ok, I guess by this time, you might have guessed that I am gonna meet somebody who might be around for a pretty long time. Thanks Isyah for the last quote. I benefitted from it.

I've been away from school for a week! I can't wait to see my dear peeps tomorrow! I miss my friends, NOT THE LESSONS!

All hell break loose.

Oh boy, everybody's getting so 'spendy-money-ish' these days. I don't really foresee another Asian Financial Crisis, but then again, here's my take on some ways to spend money, tried and tested, by me:

1 Give up that designer coffee. The money you save from buying a latte every day could add up to more than $65,000 in your working life.
2 Leave your credit card(s) at home when you shop. It's harder to part with cash.
3 Drink water instead of a soda. It's only $1 a day, but in your working life, would add up to a savings of $22,000.
4 Turn down the air con, turn off the TV when you aren't in the room, turn off the cable TV and get energy efficient light bulbs, not dim bulbs. :P A savings of $20 a month could total $1,200 over five years.
5 Book your holidays for all of 2007 today. You'll get the best prices on hotel rooms, flights and you'll book when you can still redeem your miles.
6 Take the bus or MRT whenever you can. It's cheaper than a taxi and could easily save you $10 a week or $520 a year. Better yet, walk when you can and get exercise.
7 Hand-wash instead of dry clean. At $5 an item for dry cleaning, it really adds up.
8 Take your lunch to work one to two days a week, save $10 a week and nutrition experts say you will eat healthier, too.
9 Don't shop for groceries when you are hungry, and never enter a store without a shopping list. You'll save yourself from buying things you don't need or don't really want.

Disclaimer: If all else fails, then don't even go out of the house. There's nothing you can buy in your house. :) :) :)

It's been a rather long week. and I'm completely shagged from all the intense studying I've ever done! But, I'm proud of myself, because I've got a newfound discovery - I can study in school because help is just one staircase away, and of course, the principal's office is less than 5 metres away, and she does walk round sometimes. By the way, I'm on the AJ's Potential Top Student list, so yeah, be the best that I can be! But seriously, knowing so much stuff which I would have been totally clueless about a month ago felt really good. I feel really knowledgeable suddenly, and maybe there's hope to do well eventually, never mind the prelims.

CWO with Isyah was a blast! We had to hold pails filled with soapy water, which later I figured, would be the soap for cleaning floors but we cleaned the tables instead. And of course, the horrendous looking school brooms. So off we went, for 40 minutes, tottering, cleaning tables and saying "Excuse me, may I wipe your table?" countless of times. We both were like giggling the whole way, and I tried to tell Isyah that she looks like a maid cleaning the cinders when she swept the floor. Haha..It's all in good humour, babe. All in good humour.

*Yawns* I am feeling rather tired right now, what with so many surprises springing up on me for today alone, what with the assignments, and the Math marks, and meeting some really old mates, and some old crush in school, among others. Man! I have to do more math thingies tomorrow, plus JJC's case study.

That's it, man. I don't have a life currently. But never mind, just as long as I've got supportive people supporting me from behind, I'll be fine. After A levels, there'll be 8 whole long months, 12 if you are unsuccessful to get into university, but I think eight's enough, of holidays! Yippee yay! Must be forward looking, right? Anyways, I think my A levels end on the 26th November, so, I'm gonna do it all the way!

So much determination. I'm gonna make sure it translates into the results. I'm sure I can do it!

I intend to travel after my exams. And I promised someone I'll drag him along. So, yes, start saving up!

Doesn't it intrigue you to just find out more about other cultures? I just don't understand it when some people want to travel to other cosmopolitan cities just so that they can shop. Like, hello, haven't you done enough shopping in Singapore? Surely you don't pay thousands of bucks just to shop, isn't it? Knock some sense, peeps. Knock some sense. And that's not all. I'm sure we're all aware that Singaporeans are relatively many times better off than some of our counterparts, but really, it's only a marginal win, and I'm sure of that. How else could you explain that the other counterparts whom we've long perceived to be 'weaker' are now coming out strong? A marginal win doesn't equate to a big win, mind you. So, I know Singaporeans are a majorly materialistic lot, but maybe, we should start flying some of them materialistic peeps to some country with a low standard of living, and see how they survive there. Maybe they will. Maybe they won't.

Yi Han, Carl, Isyah, Michelle and Victoria called me the Ultimate Kampong Kid! Cos they say I know how to spin coins so professionally, do a scorpion braid, cook and play five stones, which is true. Thank y'all! I love being the Ultimate Kampong Kid!