Thursday, August 31, 2017

[#7] Last Day of work

'31 August 2017'

Last day of work, mixed feelings for this day. Worked half day today before heading to the Airport for my Bandung trip. 

Nonetheless, looking forward to my new adventure! ;)

xoxo,
nuaqueendotcom



Monday, July 31, 2017

[#6] Temporary Freedom

'17 July 2017'

The day I officially tendered *Cues happiness music for my temporary freedom~* Has been planning several trips during my 3 weeks break from work (even in between) as my friends were saying how it would be much more difficult to travel with me once I commence my new job.

Pre-training, just that no income hahaha. Cray two months ahead but I'm ready to recharge before training starts proper. Going to stock up on 2 months supply of cup noodles lol.

'Hello HOBO life'

xoxo,
nuaqueendotcom

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

[#5] Cafe Hop ft. Cinnamoroll Cafe

22nd June 2017

Meeting my bimbz to cafe hop on this date^ and also, to treat her since I've landed myself a job as a flight attendant! 😬

As usual, busy bimbz needed to settle some stuff at her work place and so yours truly bus down from my office to find her. She let me stay in her office while she settled some stuff and as I was feeling playful, I swiped out my camera and played with Snapchat filters. 🤣



🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

----xoxo----

Finally, we arrived at this cute pop-up cafe~ 


There were 7 people in front of us even though we reached around 7.30pm. Sideview of the cute decorations of the Cinnamoroll Cafe as I was feeling awkward with 7 pairs of eyes staring at me. 😅 Queued for approximately 20 odd minutes before we got a seat.


A snap of the cute menu provided 😁





Food and dessert rices were considered average based on cafe standards, the only thing I find slightly pricey is the soda drinks. Then again, there's a cute cotton candy doggy sitting on the of the drink so.. I guess the price is sort of justified. Hehhh.. 😝


Cute little doggy ft. my Grace Gift Minnie Mouse Bag 


Bimbz pinching the dog cz' she finds it 'dirty' 😶


Cutie~

Food came pretty fast, am surprised by the speed. Barely 10 minutes passed and all our orders were out, apart from dessert which came slightly later. Both of us ordered the pasta set, cotton candy drinks and a dessert to share.



Fun with Friends Cold Pasta - $17.90


Cutie Cutie Special Cinnamoroll Blue Soda - $14.90


Cinnamoroll Berries Fantasy Parfait - $17.90



Happy us with our food~

For a themed cafe, I'm shocked that the food actually tasted legit nice. 😯  If you've tried other themed cafes, you may have tasted mediocre flavoured food but people still swarm over for the cute and instagrammable visuals. *Guilty as charged oops 🙊*


---xoxo---

This pop-up cafe will only be in Singapore for a limited time till 13 August 2017. Details below,

Cinnamoroll Cafe x Kumoya
8 Jalan Klapa
Singapore 199320

Kumoya Opening Hours (Closed on Mondays):

Tue-Thur & Sun - 12.00pm to 9.30pm
Fri/Sat - 12.00pm to 10.30pm
(10 minuets walking distance from Bugis MRT)

xoxo,
nuaqueendotcom

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

[#4] Baby steps to a crew's life Part I

As the title states, this is a post on the journey of my crew life, or rather the journey as to how it all started. I have applied as a cabin crew for three companies and these are the attempts respectively (not in the order of attempts),

i. Cathay Pacific Airline
    Online Application - 1 time

ii. Scoot-Tiger Airline
    Online Application - 3 times

iii. Singapore Airline (SIA/SQ)
     Walk-In Interviews - 3 times
     Online Application - 2 times


The idea of flying & working sort of got stuck in my head as I was travelling to several countries almost every quarter for the whole of 2015. I didn't get to save up much & the desire to just book air tickets to get out of Singapore was too strong an urge I have to curb. This was also due to the nature of my current workplace which further contributed to my desire to fly & be paid to fly. 😁

----xoxo----

My journey started in March 2016, when I went for SIA's walk-in interview at Pan Pacific Hotel with my cousin.

Image taken from Dayre.me

My first interview since Year 2014 and I was feeling extremely nervous/excited/jittery. Luckily my cousin was with me so it sort of eased all these emotions a little. 😬

There were 2 rounds of interviews on the first day, Round One - Self-introduction & a random question (Groups of 10), Round Two - Debate For/Against(Groups of 6). Cousin and I got through Round One and proceeded to Height/Documentation checks where Round Two will start thereafter.

However, as there were a lot of applicants for the walk-in, our Round Two got postponed to the next month. I was flying to Japan in April and thus, was re-scheduled to have my Round 2 interview in May.

I managed to pass Round Two and was scheduled for Round 3 - 2 to 1 Interview the next day at SIA Training Centre (STC). However, I didn't pass this round and was sent back home. I remembered feeling a little dejected since I've come so far but nonetheless, I decided to try again 2 months later as I believe that perseverance is the key to success.

I failed the interview for July's walk-in but this time round, it was Round Two. And again for the walk-in for September's, also at Round Two. I guess the very first time I got through Round 2 was totally beginner's luck. 😂

Then came the online applications for SIA's interviews. and I applied. If I pass the online Video interview, I will be invited down for Round 2 straight. I was invited down for Mar 2017 Round 2 interview, which I failed as well. 😂

I was determined to try again and so I re-applied during April's intake to which I failed at the online Video interview since there was no e-mail regarding Round 2 interview.

Image taken from Dayre.me

I strongly believe in having Fate with my job and this is a sign that I have no fate working for SIA at this point of time. So, I went on to apply for other companies.

Cathay Pacific Airline hires through an invite only interview. I submitted the necessary documents and was replied with an e-mail stating that if there's no response within 8 weeks, applicant can assume that his/her application has failed. It has been 5 weeks since my application so I assumed that my application has been rejected.

Image taken from Dayre.me

----xoxo----

Before my Cathay Pacific Airline application, I have applied for Scoot-Tiger Airline twice. Recently, I re-applied for the position of cabin crew with Scoot-Tiger Airline and was given the opportunity to join them.

I shall elaborate on my application for Scoot-Tiger Airline in another post as I will go into more details regarding my job opportunity with Scoot-Tiger Airline.


xoxo,
nuaqueendotcom

Friday, June 16, 2017

[#3] Start of Wanderqueen

I am back... trying to clear the extreme backlogs I have in all my devices hahaha. Quite upset that my old Samsung 4 phone has crashed on me recently 😢. Around 3,000 photos were stored inside and I am trying to source cheaper solutions to retrieve my data. Luckily, I have already transferred most of them out to my mac-book. 👍🏻

Let's rewind to YEAR 2013, the start of it all. Back when I was still an undergraduate, traveling abroad seemed to be an obsolete dream for me due to the lack of funds. I was working part-time in between studies and managed to save a sum of money for my first overseas trip with my Secondary school friends.

With the girls schooling and the boys in the Army, we could only afford a short trip to Genting based on our miserable savings/salaries. 😂  It was supposed to be a 4 girls and 4 boys trip however, we wound up with full strength for the girls but only 2 for the boys. The other 2 were overseas during that period, one with their family and one with the Army mates for ORD trip (if my memory didn't fail me)


10th July 2013

We started our tedious 6-8 Hours bus ride to Genting Highlands from Boon Lay Shopping Centre, with Vernon being our main photographer hehehe thank you. (I will find a photo and credit one with him inside

I remembered it was an early bus ride, probably 7-ish or 8 in the morning? Mornings and me just don't work together 🙊. Somehow or another, I managed to reach early at the pick up spot to have breakfast with the rest. Soon, it was time to depart.



Chilling in our coach

Fast forward several hours later, we finally reached Genting Highlands! 🤣  Checked in and rest before heading out for some food and night activities like arcade or bowling (based on my memory as I can't seem to find any photos of it on social media and the photos in my Samsung 4 are probably gone 😭)


11th July 2013

We headed out to Genting Highlands outdoor theme park the very next day to start our activities. The Genting Highlands outdoor theme park as of now (Year 2017) has been demolished and is currently under construction for the new Fox theme park which was rumoured to open by either end of 2017 or the start of 2018.

However, in February 2017 when I revisited Genting Highlands for their Burgers and Lobsters (which I will be updating in another post), we saw that the theme park was not even a quarter done 😅  So...

Anyway, back to our day out at the old theme park. Some rides we took that day, in non chronological order.




Haunted Mansion



Pirate ship - Viking




Some spaceship thingy 😂 



Giant Swing


In between the rides, we took wefies and lunch. As I have no recollection on the exact events, I shall lump all the miscellaneous pictures together, for keepsake.






Is it me or my arm looks gigantic here? 😰

After having fun at the outdoor theme park, we decided to head in to the indoor theme park and catch a movie. We caught White House Down and to be honest, I don't remember watching this movie at all. Felt like my brain is deteriorating.. 😅




After the movie and dinner etc., we headed back to our hotel rooms for some masking and HTHT (heart to heart talk) sessions. Reliving the moment as I recollect what happened that night. Missing old times as such.


12th July 2013

The next day, it was time to check out of our stay at Genting Highlands and bus back to Singapore. 




Our favourite hangout spot STARBUCKS - For tapping on free Wifi 🤣


En route home

----xoxo----

Here's a photo of our precious photographer for the 3 days 2 nights trip, Vernon, who diligently kept snapping pictures of us. Thank you!! 😁



Picture credit - Vernon's Facebook


Although this marked the end of our trip, it was however the start of my desire to travel to different countries, to which I will write about in the next few posts to come for memory's sake.


xoxo,
nuaqueendotcom

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

[#2] BTO May 2017

In 5 months' time (or less), boyf and I will be hitting our 5th year together. How time flies. Just like every majority of the young Singaporean couples out there, the next step towards future planning would be the purchase of our 1st home.

After much research on the HDB website and discussion forums, we have decided to opt for the most common route, which is to bid for a BTO flat. Why so?

1. BTO: Build To Order is a flat allocation system by the HDB which provides flat owners the flexibility in buying new HDB flats as these projects are usually confirmed after each sales launch.

They take around 3-4 years to complete, which is good in my case since boyf has just started working not long ago and I have been spending most of my funds holiday-ing for the past 2 years lol 🙊

2. Grants: 2 types of grants are available, SHG & AHG, depending on the areas that you bid for, either mature or non-mature estates.

SHG - Special Housing Grant, only available for non mature estates and for 2-flexi to 4 room flats.
This grant is only given to families with combined average income of $8,500 or less in the past 12 months.

AHG - Additional Housing Grant, is capped at $40,000 and is allocated based on combined average income in the past 12 months for 2-flexi flats or larger. This grant is only given to families with combined income of $5,000 or less.

As boyf has only started working in April, his income will not be taken into account since it's less than 12 months. This is good for us since only my income is taken into consideration (at least until next April) which means that if our BTO is successful and AHG is approved, we will have some grant discount.

The best part? Say you have an increment in your pay after you BTO, it doesn't matter as they only take into account your salary at the time of your BTO. 👍

3. First Timer: BTO is based on a computerised balloting system and as a First Time applicant, we are allocated 2 ballot chances.


18th May - 24th May

This is the flat application period for the May 2017 BTO sales launch. Four BTO were launched in the May 2017 sales launch, 2 in mature estates and 2 in non-mature estates,

Mature Estates
i. (Geylang) Dakota
ii. (Toa Payoh) Bidadari

Non-Mature Estates
i. (Woodlands) Marsiling
ii. Yishun

When our friend showed us the May launch in February, we were quite interested with the one in Dakota. The BTO flats are within walking distance from the Dakota MRT station and Old Airport Road Hawker Centre.

Fig 1.1 - HDB Dakota's Breeze Online Brochure

When I discussed it with my Dad, he suggested Bidadari since it is very central and conveniently located near Serangoon, Ang Mo Kio and the East. I wasn't familiar with the roads around that area and decided to check out the site with boyf. Bidadari is quite centralised however, the BTO site is located at the back which means distance from both Woodleigh and Bartley MRT are roughly a 10 minutes walk.

At that point of time, as we were considering the possibility of bidding a 5 room flat, Bidadari was our number 1 choice since there were none in Dakota. Over time, we discussed and analysed the differences between a 4 room and 5 room BTO flat i.e. price, space, value etc. After much consideration, we decided to bid for Dakota, our 1st choice in February due to the fact that a 5 room's extra space of 20 meters square is not large enough to convert into a bedroom, thus not worth the extra $100,000 upgrade.

To our surprise, when the online brochure for the BTO at Dakota came out, there are 4 room flats with built in Balcony, similar to those in the 5 room flats. Our decision has been finalised! 😁

Fig 1.2 - HDB Dakota's Breeze Online Brochure


18th May

The date we applied for our Dakota BTO. 😬  With a few clicks and $10, we have successfully bid for a 4 room flat at the Geylang estate. Results will only be out roughly a month later in July.

I was curious about the total number of applications at Geylang and religiously went to the HDB website daily (until 25th May as the final update was at 2 pm lol) to check the numbers. Probably due to the fact that it's my first time bidding & I was pretty excited.

P.S. I only kept track of the 4 room flats application figures since we bid for a 4 room at Dakota.


284 Applicants - 18th May 5 pm



941 Applicants - 19th May 5 pm




1,335 Applicants - 20th May 5 pm


1,840 Applicants - 21st May 5 pm




2,308 Applicants - 22nd May 5 pm



2,702 Applicants - 23rd May 5 pm



3,173 Applicants - 24th May 5 pm



3,493 Applicants - 25th May 2 pm



----xoxo----


I only focused on the First Timer application rate as it indicates the number of First Timers vying for a 4 room flat set aside for First Timers in Dakota. The final First Timer application rate is 4.2, meaning for every 4 room flat, approximately 4 First Timers are vying for it. In mature estates, 95% of flat supply are reserved for First Timers, out of which 30% for PPS, 30% for MCPS and 35% for other families.

Note: PPS & MCPS are priority schemes

There are a total of 671 units 4 room flats in Dakota. Based on the calculation, 671 units x 95% x 35% = 223 units of flat supply set aside for First Timer - Other families. Looking at the First Timer application rate of 4.2, our chance was originally 25% based on 95% flat supplied to total First Timers. Based on 35% flat supplied to First Timer - Other families, our chance has dropped significantly to 9.2%*. 😰

*Percentage drop is a rough calculation based on proportion since number of First Timers - Other Families is unknown

Regardless, bidding for a BTO flat in Geylang still has a higher chance of us getting a ballot number as compared to striking the lottery.

May the Force be with us! 😬


xoxo,
nuaqueendotcom