nostalgia

seriously, i think i enjoy studying what i'm studying... i was in the library at 1830, reading my journal readings for 'deviations in child psychology', preparing for my test on thurs when i realized that i seriously enjoy what i'm reading and studying. The mind boggling hypothesis, controversial statements seem to provide some answers. Yet, posing further qns.... The manifestation of ADHD in childhood into conduct disorder is considered as single disorder; or does the markers in ADHD merely constitute risk/intermediary factors to the development of conduct disorder?! The journal rambles on and on only to reflect that it is inconclusive! how nice..


On another note, i was leaving mcgill and appreciating its charm on a lazy evening when the sky aint as bright and the sun aint that warm... and i start to appreciate the fact that i'm gonna be living in a BIG BIG BIG air-conditioner for the next 4 months! hhaa.. thank god for everything:D

P.S. i'd REALLY like to show you a a panoromic view of mcgill... but i would look like an idiot taking a video... as if it doesn look bad enuf that i took 2 pics...

Villa Maria - Monkland Village

YEs... i love monkland village as well. HAa.. basically its this stretch of street called monkland avenue or something in the Villa Maria neighbourhood. I saw sooo many cake shops!!! HAah... and cafes.... well, its a little upscale neighbourhood (think Bukit Timah) juz by looking at the cars parked by the sidewalks... hehee...

well, the metro station is something different. Hehhe.. they have seats painted in alternate colours, making the station look all brighg and spurky (is there even such a word spurky? anyway....)! We had a short walk to monkland village from the metro station... the houses are so nice and pretty! i love the neighbourhood.... hahah... nice outdoor cafes, cute dogs (seriously, REALLY cute and hyper dogs), pretty cake places.... hahhaa... a very nice and relaxing atmosphere.... well, we decided to have thai for lunch (at lewis request) and it was not bad. though i said no more asian food for me, i cant really help it since i'm such a democratic person yeah!? at least i wasnt complaining about the food.... i was TOO full to get a cake after that! well, the others couldn really be bothered about my incessant cries for cake anymore. probably immune by now... so i resisted myself and saved the cake money:D heheh... bought some CHEAP apples from the supermarket and i found that they have 'Presidents Choice' cookies! HAHa.. well, thats gonna be my lunch box for the next 3 days:D



Btw, i bought my greyhound tix to NY!!! hahaha... i'm practically dreaming of woodbury.... after hearing so much from shiying... haha.. it better be good! and we found a gem at Berri-Uqam station. A cake haven... HAHaha... my eyes were practically bowled out. again, i resisted myself from buying any! I'm so proud of myself! HAhah.. more like i'm scared of having a cookie-face;)

well, time to hit the books till thurs.... and then...enjoy my early weekend:D

Colours at Villa Maria metro station. Serious, the metro stations normally look dull and grey...
Start of monkland village.... i love their houses.
Cute red tree in the midst of greens....
The first boulangerie i spotted. apparently, this was recommended by shiying which was y i got so excited...
Cho'cola! The cake shop i read in HUi QIn's magazine... i found it! haha.. not bad....

My greyhound bus tix:D
The gem at Berri Uqam station.... seriously, its a WHOLE row of cakes and pies...

Reminds me of KK......

La Ronde + a very traumatizing nite!

Went to La Ronde today! Well, it didn come easy when we started on a bad foot... Its a REALLY long story... HAAH. well, to sum it up we were supposed to go yesterday nite at 12 midnight. yes midnight since it was stated on the website. But apparently, it was an error and we only found out at 2pm! so... we had to postpone it to today instd! well, thats not the worst part. We realized that we needed a photo for the season pass. So... gab & lewis (well, smart hui qin and i brought from sing of course) had to go take the pic. and it cost them 11 bucks (CAD) for 2 itsy miny ic photos! HAhha... and the worst part: we saw those photo booth @ McGill station which costs 4 bucks! HAHa... they pretended that they didn see anything.... Then, we went to this place to get 'cheaper' tix as recommended by the LA Ronde website. And... the in-store manager told us to go ask the pharmacist when we asked him about it. so, we went. WEll, we waited for 10 mins and the pharmacist ( a REALLY frail looking old chinese man who looks like he can seriously faint any moment) said that he doesn know about it and i shld go ask the manager. So, we went back and apparently, the manager misheard us and thought we were asking about some medicine that happens to sound like 'La Ronde'. seriously... is my pronounciation that bad?! and he didn even look apologetic. How nice.... well, we decided to persevere and made our way to Papineau station to take a bus transfer to La Ronde.



We made it to the place! HAhah.. its not the end... we found out that they take photos for you to make the season pass with those little webcam thingy. HAha.. so much for gab & lewis' 11 bucks! hehee... anyway, the rides were good! hahaa... But the wait was Long..... we had to wait for about half an hour for each ride... well, hui qin kinda gave up on the more 'scary' rides and i was left to 'entertain' the 2 guys... HAha.. ooops... well, compared to disneyland, i guess they kinda lose out in the atmosphere.... you know, that happy happy atmosphere?! haha.. well, i'll give them credit for their rides though.

entrance at La Ronde. Long Q at tix stands! being typical singaporean, i picked up my pace to find the SHORTEST Q... hehehe..
VAMPIRE roller coaster ride....
VAMPIRE.
Yes, i sat on that!
HUi qin finally plucked up some courage to sit this then chickened out after qing up for 5 mins.... well, the rest of us sat it in the end... they juz turn you in round and rounds... yawnz.... I like that bridge!

Structure of another roller coaster ride: Le Monstre (the monster). ITs really cool cos eveyrthing is built out of wooden planks and BIG screws.

The BIG thing in La Ronde: GOLIATH roller coaster ride. We didn get to take this cos montreal pple have to close EARLY n make sure that they close shop at 6pm ON the dot. well, we're def. gonna make this our first ride on the next trip. the pass kinda covers unlimited entry for sep/oct;)
The climax in Goliath....

Oh.. and i think i'm learning the art of chatting with RANDOM pple.. seriously. I chatted with this guy who was holding a REALLY BIG bugs bunny stuffed toy. seriously, life-size!; OFFERED to take pics for this french little gal trio; the guy who sat beside me on one of the roller coaster ride; this bunch of pple who were scared for a while that the bus to papineau station wasnt going to pick us up from the START of the Q since we were at the front of the Q; replied a lady who asked me (in french) whether the bus goes to papineau station. yes, i understood her in french! good job von! haha...

In case you're wondering whether I'm even studying?! yes.... pls read my previous post to recap your memory. I'm even gonna go to school tml (though its my free day) to borrow the 'child deviations' TB from the library... i've a test on thurs. well, juz thought that i'll be a hardworking girl this week since i'm gonnne be away for the weekend:D hehe...

oh... and i found out that my face TOTALLY looks like a BIG ROUND cookie now!!! taking pics beside hui qin doesn really help matters..... this is sooo traumatizing! and its barely a month! what m i gonna look like after 4 months?! BLAH....

COLD & lazy day...

Super cold day..... stayed and lazed at home the whole day though.... woke up at 11am. after try to force myself to sleep for half an hour... i devised a plan to wake up, eat and juz have an afternoon nap again later... what an evil thought... hehee...

well, i kept to my 'thoughts' and ended up lazing.. well, i did some readings... which ended up in an afternoon nap. hehehe.. i was even too lazy to go out for lunch... canned soup suited me just fine. Hhhee... oh dear... the lazy syndrome is kicking in... muz be the weather! ;)

as usual, i had a craving for cakes by evening! HAHa.. we went to KILOS, this cafe juz up front at St Denis.....:) what a name for a cake place.....


P.S. i think i'm getting lazy with this blog thingy.... ooops...

my carrot cake.. well, thought i'd have something 'healthy'...
oreo cake. good sponge cake
Tarzan: choco coating with cream cheese and a tinge of banana flavour.. dun ask me why they call it tarzan...

Response to Dav's VERY scholarly blog post....

ok... i'm kinda doing this at 1234 am.. after 2 glasses of wine and reading dav's REALLY inspiring (i quote) 'scholarly post' on his blog... [http://www.drumstix.blogspot.com/] so... y not?! he's always game for some debate anyways....

well, wrt to what he mentioned about journal article (yes dav, i READ the article... well, kinda browsed through), i'd say that dav's kinda making a mountain out of a molehill.... oops... or rather the author of the article...

well, first thing first, the role of 'religion' in dealing with illness (mental or physical) has been recently dealt with affirmative comments in its function of 'self efficacy' in helping patients deal with the particular illness. This is particuarly seen in incurable illnesses such as cancer etc where patient's dealing with the illness has been proven to be dependent on his/her self-assessed ability to deal with the illness. apparently, recent attention has been placed on the role of religion in promoting methods in helping. so when it has shown its effectiveness (as proven even in teh article: pp2) why pose such criticism to it?!

also, seriously, freud and the other freud-ians' theory of religion and mental illness isnt really convincing for me.. well, i always belive that freud doesn really have a place in terms of abnormal psychology and mental illness... someone who theorizes that mental illness arises due to any inability to relieve the sexual urge that you have towards ya common-sex parent?! i mean... yeah... it doesn work for me at least. so i cant agree on his claim that religious involvement LEADS to mental illnesses like depressiona n schizo. also, lets face it, the study of schizo has shown that etiology is mainly attributed to abnormal brain structures. so again, his view doesn quite work for me... Directionality of relationship (schizo & bizzare religious beliefs) is also unclear and purely a claim on its own without evident validity. [pp4]

last but not least, the claim that "Seeking miraculous faith cures instead of timely medical care can delay accurate diagnosis and enable treatable diseases to advance out of control (pp.5-6)"?! Firstly, the study by Lannin and colleagues [30] would SEEM to validate the above claim.. but then again, it was stated the limitations of its results. Study purely shows a correlational relationship without proving a causal relationship. furthermore, i believe that religious beliefs are sort of a mediatory factor in patients approach towards another alternative method of medicine (i.e. supernatural healing etc). Non-conventional /alternative medicine has been in existence since the history of china with the advent of acupuncture, chinese herbs even poisonous ones), tai ji/calligraphy (the connection between the mind & body) where no proven evidence has shown its validity in curing the illness. Yet, it has proven its effectiveness in curing illnesses over the past hundreds of years... so i really see no point in overclaiming the 'negative effects' of religious beliefs on physical health...

btw, i only read till pp6... ahaha. well, i kinda have other assignments to read up on as well... HAha..

Marche Jean-Talon

i love the jean-talon market! HAha... went over to check it out this afternoon... we were sooo excited about the food there! and the vegetables and fruits.... and i attempted to try some of my french with the vendors... HAHA.. like 'bonjour', 'merci', 'je parle un peu de francais', 'je parle anglais', 'une douzaine', 'quest-ce que c'est?', 'cafe au lait et un croissant'... its fun! HAha... at least i know they understood my english-french... well, when they THINK that i speak french, they'd reply in REALLY fast french and i'd juz be lost... HAhaa...

anyway, we had fish and chips for lunch. seriously, that was like the best meal i've had in montreal! HAh... the fish was kinda freshly battered and fried. and it was sooo fleshy! i juz had to take a pic of it;) and the best part, its only 6 bucks (cad)! hahhaa.. we were walking around and juz grabbing the free stuff for sampling: nectarine (bought half a dozen of that), peach, fromage.... typical singaporeans... hehehe...

Hui qin & lewis with their lunch!
my fish and chips! check out how fleshy it is!!! i'm sooo amazed with it! haha...

BIG pumpkins... haha for hallowe'en
free sampling:D

yellow long beans...
purple, yellow and green cauliflower! haha.. we bought a BIG bunch of the NORMAL cauliflower though... for 2 bucks!
lewis and his corn.. with lotsa margarine! haha... i added for him...


for tea time, lewis and hui qin had gelato! well, i'm kinda full from yesterday's nite gelato and skipped that for a croissant and cafe at an outdoor cafe. the croissant was good! its crispy not like the soft and dampy type in singapore... well, we kinda had to start moving from our tea time to get stuff for dinner. we bought sausages (spicy pork: they make their own!), a bottle of white wine (super cheap wine here... 10 bucks for a bottle), some nectarines and cheese to go with the 'vin blanc'. we had a really full meal! HAha....


chocolat noir and machtta for lewis and hui qin respectively


afternoon tea time....
my cafe au lait avec un croissant:D

TGIF

Its fri nite! HAHa. more like sat morning... well i have to re-iterate from the previous post how happy one can get when the weekend comes.. seriously...

Woke up late today...kinda the only day this week where i got the chance to do so... its been early wake-ups the past week, especially on tue/thurs @ 7! gosh.... well, i was kinda sleepwalking the whole day in school anyway.. so whats new;)

Hui qin & i planned to do laundry this morning.. kinda like my 1st time doing it?! ooops... she had to teach me how to separate the colours and all.. well, i taught her how to differentiate the dryer and washer... haha.. she mistakenly placed the clothes in the dryer thinking that it was the washer! ooops... well, our clothes turned out safe and nice-smelling anyway... so not too bad!

Then, we went to St Denis to do some walking. I love that place!!! i found the PERFECT boots at this second hand antique shop.. they've got lotsa such shops there anyway. i totally love that place.. and it looks perfect with the heels and height... and size! funny thing is... i couldn zip it up at my calf! i'd like to believe that the boots arent designed well rather than the fact that i've fat calfes. so yeah... and there's a couple of old record shops that sell LOTSA jazz/rock stuff?! in vinyl records!!! i found some QUEEN & malajube (thats the french band playing on my blog btw) vinyl records! i was soo tempted to buy... even though the fact that i dun really have something called a vinyl record player?! who cares... i can juz show them off;) haha.. well, being a rational purchaser, of course i didnt buy it... well, next time, we'll see how it goes;)

St Denis.. sorry, this pic isnt that nice looking... haha..
my vinyl records shop! i had to take a pic of it....

we were so tired from walking.. we found a place to have sushi! HAha.. freaking expensive sushi i've had in my whole life.. its montreal anyway, so yeah.. hahaa.. some pics of the SUPER EXP. sushi we had... we were so greedy we had 2 boxes!!! we had a long... lunch cum dinner.. juz sitting there and 'enjoying' what the montreal-ers would call their BEST weather but singaporeans the hot and humid singapore weather.
lunch-time view:D
sushih lunch! that costs CAD$10 btw... which is $15 sing!

our sushi bentos at the end of the day...

of course, we couldn end the day like that. i convinced the other peeps to go to a jazz place, despite Kent's incessant naggings that we've to (i quote) "take advantage of the weather". He was practically flipping to the weather network and quoting the temperatures. Basically he juz wanna bring across the msg that the weather is good and we shld stay outdoors! AHha.. well, didn regret going INDOORS though... went to the HOUSE OF JAZZ, this jazz bar... (http://www.houseofjazz.ca/) its good! at least better than what i heard in sing... they had this electronic keyboard in the band which was really cool... he was kinda incoroporating techno kepyboard into the jazz music... haha it blended in juz nice.. sweet... too bad we didn get to see the show cos we had bar seats... but it was all right.. it was good music for the ears:D i need to check out the drum playing the next time! the ambience was good too... a nice outdoor terrace for diners and indoor area with a cosy stage and BIG chandeliers.. big old school posters of jazz legends hanging up on the walls.... totally JAZZY ambience! (P.S. andre... you're gonna love this!)

well, of course, we ended up walking up SAINT LAURENT to check out the nite life. seriously, the whole of montreal seems to be outside! it was REALLY hyped up... hahaha... so yeah... it kinda reminded me of the last supper when everyone is juz doing last minute work be4 winter comes... and their happy humid and hot weather will be gone.... awww... but i guess nothing can stop these montreal-ers from partying... HAha.. not even the cold winds and hurricanes..