Your No Bill Of Rights - 'The Power Of No'

Chanced upon this really great book 'The Power of No' By James Altucher and Claudia Azula  Altucher, and decided to start drawing out all the really good sayings from each chapter and keep it in track here. If you are a person who have issue saying no to things that are bad for you just like me, this is a great book to go for. 

No is an incredibly painful, brave word to say. 

But we have the right to say no. Here are some that I felt I really needed to know out of the listed 10 in the book.  

1. You Have the Right to Healthy relationships and Real Love

' We are entitled to choose our tribes, regardless what society impose on us. We decide who in our life drains us of energy and then purge them so we can soar. '

Yes. Pretty much for me, to start surrounding myself with positive energy and saying no to people whom I know is draining me off my positiveness. 

2. You Have the Right to Choose What Stories you Believe in 

'Humans are great storytellers. There are thousands of common stories that are baked into our societal mythology and that we believe are real. Like owning a home, having a cushy jobs etc. 

You are entitled to say NO to the stories that do not serve your own evolution, and yes only to the ones that align with your ability to manifest a fulfilling life. This protects you from the seven billion people who want to keep you in line. '

Yes. End of the day, there will be many people around you giving you different advice in all the different situations you meet. But end of the day, we are all entitled to say no to the beliefs people try to build into us that we know deep down isn't what we will agree to. 

3. You have the Right to Be Honest, Above All, with Yourself 

' You are entitled to saying NO to wearing a mask in order to get people to like you. '

' You can trust the way you are is fine, that your honesty is what attract others to you, and that your truth is what lights your internal fire. ' 

Your honesty - Saying no to the lying - is what will bring the lost ships home. ' 

I live all this while thinking that my honesty is what killed me. Only for me to realise, it isn't me being honest that made me lose my job and the people around me. In fact, thanks to being honest, it helped me get away people who aren't good for my life to begin with. 

4. You Have the Right to Be Here Now

' You are entitled to say NO to time travelling. Angers and regrets are in the past. Anxieties and worries are in the future. Travelling to the past or the future will not help you now. 

You have the right to say no to what is not happening right now. It will never solve your future problems but will always sap your present strengths. '

Time travelling is what I am always good at. What will happen 5 years down the road if I get together with this guy? Why did I say that yesterday? What should I say to my colleague when I see him tomorrow about the incident? I never ever live in the present, I am constantly worried about what will happen tomorrow, and always regretting what I said and did the day before that seemed to make others unhappy yesterday. Then to be reminded what is done cannot be undone, worrying now don't solve tomorrow's issue. In fact, im losing moments that I can use to do more productive shits that can really make tomorrow better. 

5. You Have the Rights to Surrender 

' You are entitled to surrender even the ideas you have formed about yourself. This is the ultimate No: Saying NO to what you think you are. 

It means that you need to surrender to the road. You reach out and trust that a loving hand will grab hold of you and guide you to take that first step. 

There is nobody you need to impress. There is nobody who is judging you. And there will be nobody who can stop you. 

One step at a time, the journey will take where you need to go. '

 The paragraph that made me kept reading on. Totally what I needed. Stop planning for everything, stop being scared of taking the step forward, to ask for help, to allow people into my life to bring me where I should go. And most importantly, just go with the flow. And saying no to what I think I am or I should say, what I think I cannot be and believe that I am because I can. 

Swensens Ice Cream Buffet Review

So last Thursday, me and my mum had an impromptu dinner at Swensens Orchard Ion for an ice cream buffet since I had craving for ice cream since few days back. Since it is a weekday, the price was $19.90 per pax (exclusive 10% service charge and 7% GST) and would be $16.90 per pax if a meal is ordered. 

Update: Recent visit on early September 2016. Variations and settings are all still the same. Standard and variation of ice creams still great. Gelato station was down, not sure for the day only or permenant though. Maybe chocolate selection variety increased a bit. Still highly recommended till date :) 

FYI: To celebrate SG50, Swensens is giving out a $10 discount voucher for every $50 spent. No minimum amount required to use the discount voucher on next visit. 

Not wanting to go have ice cream on an empty stomach, we ordered one meal which was the grilled salmon and both me and my mum agrees that despite of the large crowd here, the food is really well done as compared to some other branches! 

Tender grilled salmon that was definitely not too dry! 

Moving on to our main target of the day, or actually is more of mine over my mum, is the ice cream! They really have a lot of choices and I failed to finish all which I aimed to (DUH). The service staff was fast and polite. Despite of the fact that she still needs to prepare the ala carte dessert orders, she was still very prompt to serve us which we thought was really nice! 

Like most reviews would have mentioned, they have this 'chop it up' section where the staff will help you mix the topping into your ice cream like marble slab does! Sad to say, you only get to choose from 8 flavours that they have listed on the small card for the mixing and not from all the rest that you can have. Still, having the ice cream neatly mixed with the nuts is really awesome! 

Toppings available is really a vast variety of choice! Its like a chocolate heaven for me with my favourite Kit Kat, Snickers, oreo mini and many more! They also have some fruit, cherries and whipped cream at the side of this chocolate topping which I failed to capture an image due to poor lighting condition (fine I was too eager to eat LOL). 

You can also expect to find some well-baked crispy waffles here that is constantly topped up and made fresh whenever the waffles in the plate runs low. Not forgetting some brownie, bread and cookies! 

They have both white and dark chocolate fondue here that is kept neat and flowing. 

Personally prefers white chocolate and it pretty much taste alike to the ones I had in Santa's igloo, milky and chocolaty . 

They have six choices of cakes available at the time of visit and we tried a bit of all. Sad to say, their cakes wasn't really soft and fluffy and I will say that is is below average so do take one to try first and not have too many, unless you find dry cakes nice. 

choices of cakes

Though this is not a Groupon review, I would still like to give it a rating with my standard rating scale as a reference point to all of your who may be new to Swensens Ice Cream buffet like me! I would say that it is a really nice place to go to have some ice cream but not a good place to stay in for a long chit chat as the manager will be 'judging' you for hoarding their seats when the queue gets long! 

Service: 5  / 5  

Environment: 4 / 5 

Food variation: 5 / 5 

Food quality: 5 / 5 

Accessibility: 4.5 / 5